Farmers always want to see their income coming from the market rather than in the form of government support. USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey says there is some short-term optimism. “There is a breath of relief that we can actually see markets go up; it felt like they went down for seven straight years.” Northey says programs like CFAP have been a bridge to help farmers during the pandemic. WHIP+ has been another form of assistance for farmers. The second payment won’t be decided until USDA knows if it has enough money to meet the demand. That will be influenced by the signup deadline at the end of the month. Speaking at the Crop Insurance Professionals Association meeting, Northey said over a billion dollars in WHIP+ payments have been made, but it has been a lengthy process. “It is a complicated signup process and we have folks still getting information to FSA offices and we have buried FSA offices with CFAP and all of the other programs we’ve got. There’s $5.5 billion in ARC and PLC payments out. We have CRP payments out. We still likely have quite a few more payments on the WHIP side to go yet.” RRFN’s interview with Northey can be found online.
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