The United States is the world’s largest exporter of agricultural products, according to World Trade Organization (WTO) data.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 reauthorized the major income support programs (Agricultural Risk Coverage Program and Price Related Loss Coverage Program) through fiscal year 2023, with minor changes.
U.S. Exports of Goods by End-Use Category and Commodity
The crop insurance program, which has permanent authorization, is maintained with some extensions to livestock insurance options.
Overall, mandatory expenditures on conservation activities increased 2%, compared to the previous five-year cycle.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides assistance to producers to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, enhance carbon sequestration and adapt to climate change.
In addition, a considerable amount of ad hoc assistance was made available to agricultural producers during the period under review.
Exporter
The trade injury mitigation package announced in July 2018 to assist farmers experiencing difficulties as a result of foreign retaliatory measures contained payments to eligible farmers under the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), commodity purchases for domestic nutrition assistance programs under the Food Purchase and Distribution Program (FPDP), and an Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (ATP) for the development of alternative foreign markets.
Payments made under the MFP amounted to nearly $27 billion between 2018 and 2020, before the program was eliminated.
According to estimates, disbursements under the FPDP amounted to $1.144 billion in fiscal 2019 and $1.203 billion in fiscal 2020.
Under the ATP, $300 million was allocated in 2019 to 59 organizations.
Agriculture
In FY 2020, USDA received funding for measures to mitigate or prevent the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and nearly $87 billion in supplemental appropriations in FY 2021.
Of the total $78.5 billion disbursed related to Covid-19 in FY 2021, nearly $50 billion was for boosting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Coronavirus-related Food Assistance Program (CFAP), initially announced in April 2020, had a component of $16 billion in direct assistance to eligible farmers and ranchers and another $3 billion earmarked for the purchase of food commodities.
Once additional funding became available from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), CFAP 2 was implemented in the summer of 2020.
CFAP payments (1 and 2) totaled $23.5 billion in 2020 and $9.3 billion in 2021 (as projected); CCC-funded payments of about $12 billion were mostly made in fiscal year 2021.
