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Disaster payments limited by appropriations

American Farm Bureau economist John Newton says disaster and prevent plant compensation is limited by congressional appropriations. Speaking on a Missouri Farm Bureau conference call, Newton said disaster legislation allows for prevent plant payments up to 90 percent of a crop’s value. He says, however, that Trump Administration officials have indicated the USDA must operate within appropriation limits.

“That $3 billion has remained the same, but at this point now they’ve added prevent plant as an eligible disaster so the money is going to be spread pretty thin there, and I think that is what USDA is trying to highlight,” said Newton during the call.

Another question is whether compensation eligibility is limited to those who farm within a declared disaster area. The message from administration officials is that anyone outside those areas will be considered on a case-by-case basis, said Newton.

“Given that the moneys are pretty thin to begin with,” he said, “I would imagine that’s one of the mechanisms they’ll use to make sure anybody getting some of these additional prevent plant payments are in some of those disaster areas.”

Newton was part of recent Missouri Farm Bureau Telephone Town Hall involving farmers and policy experts.