Alabama Agriculture Stabilization Program

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has authorized $26 million for the Alabama Agriculture Stabilization Program.

Alabama Farmers Federation Director of Agricultural Legislation Preston Roberts was part of an industry effort to utilize some of these dollars to help producers.

Roberts… “So we started back in March with the passage of the CARES Act at the federal level. And what that did is it sent money to the states to use for relief needs. Obviously states had their own set of needs, and so that was part of the CARES Act to bring some money down to the state level. And so as we started to understand more what the losses were across the agricultural industry in Alabama, we started to try and find some ways that we could use those state dollars for relief for farmers in our state.”

Roberts says the losses from the pandemic have affected nearly every facet of Alabama agriculture.

Roberts… “And obviously our last is we're not just in the livestock industry, they were spread out across multiple industries. Into the poultry industry, the greenhouse nursery folks, obviously cattle, but we really wanted to see if we could use that money for relief for the farmers that needed it.”

Applications for access to these funds can be found via the Alabama Department of Ag and Industry’s website.