Farm Policy

ASA encourage efforts to increase demand for soybeans domestically and abroad. ASA supports crop insurance as a risk management tool for farmers; encourages the Administration and Congress to provide additional assistance to soybean farmers if market losses in U.S. ag exports continue as a result of tariffs; and promotes the availability of agricultural biotechnology and crop protection products in production agriculture.

 

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Specifically, ASA:

  • Supports risk management tools provided through the federal crop insurance program and the 2018 Farm Bill.
  • Opposes more than $43 billion in cuts proposed by the Administration to farm safety net programs in its annual budget. Proposals to restrict access to programs and make crop insurance coverage more expensive would have significant negative consequences to farmers and the agricultural community.
  • Supports the extension of the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) if market losses in U.S. ag exports continue as a result of tariffs.

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Crop insurance must remain effective and affordable

Crop insurance provided much-needed support to producers in 2019. According to data from USDA’s Risk Management Agency, more than 19 million acres nationwide were prevented from planting in 2019; approximately 5.5 million were soybean acres. Following these planting challenges were droughts in some areas and early snow preventing harvest in others. 

The president’s budget proposals for fiscal year 2021 propose restricting farm program eligibility, eliminating crop insurance premium subsidy for producers meeting a certain income threshold, and reducing premium subsidy for all. ASA opposes these and other cuts to the farm safety net proposed in the budget.

Soybean farmers continue to be impacted by the global marketplace, which has not recovered from the tariff war. If market losses continue as a result of tariffs, ASA supports an extension of MFP.

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