USDA to Begin Issuing Pandemic Assistance

USDA has announced plans to issue more than $223 million in Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program payments. This money is to help farmers and ranchers who suffered a drop in gross revenues due to COVID-19 in 2020. The application process wrapped up in mid-July. There were more than 38,500 applications, triggering payments of nearly $7 billion. That is far above the available funding. As a result, a 9.5 percent payment factor has been applied to all payments to ensure equitable distribution.