Cutting Farm Payments

Cutting Farm Payments. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

It has been an interesting last several months as we have stood on the edge of a fiscal cliff, yanked back and then once again rushed headlong towards a financial abyss only to see something that was never supposed to happen...happen. Now the federal government is working overtime to attempt to fix a problem and in an attempt to absorb potential cuts totaling 7.6 percent to the overall budget due to sequester, USDA is scaling back farm payments. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack

VILSACK: We’ve identified roughly 350-thousand producers that received money that would essentially have to sign a check back to the government. The problem with the way in which the sequester was structured is it requires us to actually look back in time at the beginning of the fiscal year and to the extent that payments have been made to farmers, we will be required in theory to recoup those amounts.

Any farmers who would receive direct payments this fall would see prorated reductions in those amounts.Vilsack explains the effect direct farm payment reductions will have on the agricultural industry.

VILSACK: These cuts will make a difference in terms of the amount of credit that is available to farmers. They will reduce our commitment to conservation. We estimate roughly 15 to 16-thousand farmers may be impacted by these reductions in conservation. We won’t be able to be as aggressive in promoting agricultural trade overseas. Our rural development programs will be impacted.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.