In an interview with the Red River Farm Network, Farm Service Agency Administrator Richard Fordyce said the Market Facilitation Program is being finalized yesterday. “It’s going to be a fairly straight forward program, not very complex and really easy for people to participate.” Fordyce said the FSA will be prepared for the additional workload from the Market Facilitation Program. In addition to training current staff, additional FSA employees are being hired. “We’re going to be onboarding about 1,300 folks across the country and we’re right in the middle of that process. We knew we were a little under the staffing number that we really need to do business. The Secretary gave us the authority to start hiring people back and I’m quite confident that we’ll be able to handle the program participation.” The $12 billion assistance package is designed to partially offset the impact of trade retaliation. Soybean farmers are expected to get the largest share of the help, but corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton, dairy and hog farmers will also receive payments.
The full interview with Fordyce can be found online.