USDA Increases Funding for New Specialty Crop Program

USDA announced yesterday some changes to their MASC program. It may not lead to an increase payment to you.

Photo by Chelsey Marques on Unsplash

USDA announced yesterday an additional $650 million of aid for the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops program. They also increased the payment limit from $125,000 to $900,000 and extended the deadline to file for the program to this Friday January 10, 2025.

This sounds like that producers should see an increase in payments of about 32.5% (going from $2 billion to $2.65 billion). However, we would expect the increase in the payment limit from $125,000 to $900,000 to wipe out most of that increase.