Californian agricultural leaders are intent on ensuring farmers who grow specialty crops will receive a fair share of the one-time aid package for which the US Department of Agriculture is currently writing the rules. The USDA is working on a fair distribution of the $12 billion in assistance funding to farmers negatively affected by international trade disputes.

Last month, the USDA unveiled a three-part plan aimed at helping farmers weather some of the impacts from retaliatory tariffs that other nations have imposed on US agricultural products, including specialty crops such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and wine. The aid package includes direct payments to some farmers, government purchases of surplus crops and a trade promotion program.

Most of the $12 billion will be in the form of direct payments, although USDA said the payments would be available only to producers of commodities such as corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, dairy, hogs and sorghum.

Sara Neagu-Reed, legislative associate in the California Farm Bureau Federation Federal Policy Department, noted that California farmers and ranchers produce a wide variety of crops that will be affected differently by retaliatory tariffs.

According to chicoer.com, several California lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to give the state’s specialty-crop growers the same consideration as other farmers whose commodities are harmed by retaliatory tariffs. In a bipartisan letter last week to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, several congressional leaders said specialty-crop farmers should receive a share of the assistance funding.

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