The Biden administration recently announced additional measures to support farmers harmed by the pandemic.
The USDA is making it easier for American farmers to grow food in America, increasing food availability and bringing down food prices for American households by lowering the economic risk of growing two crops on the same land in one year, a press release from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.
“In May, I joined President Biden at the O’Connor farm in Kankakee, Illinois, to announce a series of actions to help farmers do what they do — grow food for American families and the rest of the world,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in the release. “Today, USDA is making good on one of those commitments and making it easier to plant double crops and sharing some of the financial risk by making crop insurance more available in over 1,500 counties.”
This action is a part of a larger package of pledges made earlier this year by Vilsack and President Joe Biden to boost domestic food production in the face of probable global food shortages caused by the invasion of Ukraine, the release said.
“We live in a challenging time, but I put my trust in the American farmer and U.S. agriculture to help keep the food we need affordable and available,” Vilsack said in the release. “The Biden administration and USDA will continue to find ways to ease burdens on American farmers and lower costs for American families such as expanded double crop options through crop insurance.”
The USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) is expanding double crop insurance options in approximately 1,500 counties where double cropping is feasible in order to lessen the risk associated with growing two crops on the same land in a single year, a technique known as double cropping; the release said. There are 681 counties eligible for double crop insurance for soybeans and 870 counties for grain sorghum.
RMA will also work with the crop insurance industry and farm organizations to focus on the written agreement availability and improvements as an option for farmers who grow crops outside the automatic policy offer area.
