Farmers learn aid details from president’s $12-billion trade relief package

Soybean growers have been hit especially hard by Trump’s tariff face-off with China.

- BY JOSH FUNK AND DIDI TANG

PRESIDENT TRUMP takes part in a roundtable discussion with farmers Dec. 8.

(ALEX WONG Getty Images)

Farmers are now learning how much aid they can expect to receive from a $12-billion package that President Trump announced last month.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released the figures Wednesday for how much aid per acre farmers can plan on for each row crop. The details arrived after most farmers have already met with their bankers to arrange financing for the coming season's crops and placed orders for the seed and fertilizer they will need. But officials have promised that the payments should arrive by the end of February.

Soybean farmers have been hit especially hard by Trump’s trade war with China, which stopped buying any American crops after Trump announced his tariffs in spring. China is the world’s largest buyer of soybeans. This aid package is expected to help farmers weather the trade disruptions until China buys more soybeans under an agreement announced in October and until provisions of Trump’s massive budget bill take effect.

Soybean farmers will get $30.88 per acre while corn farmers will receive $44.36 per acre. Another crop hit hard when China stopped buying was sorghum, and those farmers will get $48.11 per acre. The amounts are based on a USDA formula on the cost of production.