$12 Billion for Farmers: FBA Eligibility, Rates, and Payment Dates

The Farmer Bridge Payments are a one-time, $12 billion USDA relief package announced in December 2025 for U.S. farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs, low commodity prices, and rising input costs. The money is split between two programs run by the Farm Service Agency: up to $11 billion through the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program for row-crop producers, and $1.625 billion through the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) program for specialty crops, sugar, and other commodities the FBA does not cover.¹²

Both programs are funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation rather than a direct tariff-revenue transfer, and both are designed as short-term help until the permanent safety-net changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect on October 1, 2026.³

Who Qualifies Under the FBA Program

The FBA covers 20 row crops: barley, canola, chickpeas, corn, cotton, crambe, flax, lentils, mustard, oats, peanuts, peas, rapeseed, rice, safflower, sesame, sorghum, soybeans, sunflower, and wheat. If you planted one of those crops in 2025, you are potentially eligible. Payments are calculated on eligible planted acres. Prevented-plant acres, grazing use, cover crops, and experimental plantings do not count.⁴

Crop insurance participation is not required. Two eligibility gates do apply: a per-producer cap of $155,000 in FBA payments, and an adjusted gross income limit. Anyone with an average AGI above $900,000 is not eligible.⁵

Per-Acre Payment Rates

The USDA published national flat rates by commodity on December 31, 2025. You multiply the rate by your eligible planted acres for that crop.⁶

Rice: $132.89 per acre
Cotton: $117.35 per acre
Oats: $81.75 per acre
Peanuts: $55.65 per acre
Sorghum: $48.11 per acre
Corn: $44.36 per acre
Wheat: $39.35 per acre
Soybeans: $30.88 per acre
Barley: $20.51 per acre

Rates for the remaining eligible crops run from $8.05 per acre for flax up to $33.36 per acre for small chickpeas.⁷

Enrollment and Payment Dates

To be eligible, you needed accurate 2025 acreage reports on file with your local FSA office by December 19, 2025. The FBA enrollment window ran from February 23 through April 17, 2026. Applications could be pre-filled by the county FSA office or accessed online with a Login.gov account, then submitted in person, by email, by fax, or electronically. The FSA started issuing payments on February 28, 2026, and processed them on a rolling basis as applications were approved.⁸

By late April 2026, about $9.6 billion had already gone out to roughly 500,000 approved applicants. Corn producers received about $3.45 billion, soybean growers $2.27 billion, wheat $1.34 billion, cotton $874 million, and rice $307 million.⁹

Specialty Crops, Sugar, and Other Commodities

Specialty-crop growers are covered under a separate program, ASCF, because their crops are not on the FBA list. USDA announced ASCF details on May 29, 2026. Enrollment opened June 1, 2026, and closed August 7, 2026. The per-producer cap is $250,000, and the same $900,000 AGI limit applies.²

ASCF payment rates are tiered by the crop’s average annual revenue per acre:¹⁰

Tier 1, $650 per acre: crops earning over $10,000 per acre annually, such as blueberries, sweet cherries, fresh grapes, and strawberries.
Tier 2, $225 per acre: crops earning $2,300 to $10,000 per acre, including apples, almonds, cranberries, pistachios, potatoes, and walnuts.
Tier 3, $65 per acre: crops earning up to $2,300 per acre, such as hazelnuts.
Beans and peas not covered under FBA: $25 per acre.

Sugar producers received a separate $150 million allocation, with distribution details still being finalized in spring 2026.⁹

Why the Payments Were Issued

USDA framed the aid as a response to retaliatory tariffs, particularly from China, which cut or halted purchases of U.S. farm products through 2025. A North Dakota State University study estimated that retaliatory tariffs cost U.S. agricultural exporters about $14.9 billion in lost sales between March 2025 and February 2026, roughly 41% more than the annualized losses during the 2018–2019 trade war. Soybeans alone accounted for about $6.8 billion, with beef, cotton, and tree nuts each losing more than $900 million.¹¹

USDA also pointed to higher input costs for fertilizer, fuel, seed, and equipment, and cited a 47% rise in farm labor costs since 2020.¹¹²³

What Comes After the Bridge

USDA has said the $12 billion is meant to carry farmers until the agricultural provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed on July 4, 2025, take full effect on October 1, 2026. The law raises statutory reference prices, the floor prices that trigger government payments when markets fall below them: corn moves from $3.70 to $4.10 per bushel, soybeans from $8.40 to $10.00, wheat from $5.50 to $6.35, seed cotton from $0.367 to $0.42 per pound, and long-grain rice from $14.00 to $16.90 per hundredweight.¹³

OBBBA also adds up to 30 million new base acres eligible for Price Loss Coverage or Agriculture Risk Coverage payments, raises the ARC revenue guarantee from 86% to 90%, lifts the per-producer payment limit from $125,000 to $155,000 with annual inflation adjustments, and extends commodity support programs through the 2031 crop year.¹⁴

For the 2025 crop year, USDA will automatically pay the higher of PLC or ARC-County payments, with those disbursements expected in October 2026. Starting with the 2026 crop year, farmers must formally elect between the two programs.¹⁴

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USDA. Trump Administration Announces $12 Billion Farmer Bridge Payments for American Farmers Impacted by Unfair Trade Practices
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USDA. USDA Announces Enrollment Period and Payment Rates for Specialty Crop Farmers
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Holland & Knight. USDA Releases Details of Long-Awaited Farm Aid Package
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CALT – Iowa State University. Enrollment Open for Farmer Bridge Assistance Program
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Federal Register. Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program
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USDA. USDA Announces Commodity Payment Rates for Farmer Bridge Assistance Program
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USDA FSA. Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program
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American Farm Bureau Federation. Tracking Farmer Bridge Assistance Program Payments
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Capital Press. USDA Announces Enrollment and Payment Details for Specialty Crop Aid
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Farm Policy News. China’s Retaliatory Tariffs Cost US Ag Exporters $15 Billion, Study Says
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The New York Times. Trump Farmers Aid Bailout
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Congressional Research Service. R48574: One Big Beautiful Bill Act Agricultural Provisions
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CALT – Iowa State University. Reviewing Agricultural Provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act