[Archived] Market Facilitation Program

MFP provides payments to eligible producers of:

• non-specialty crops, including alfalfa hay, barley, canola, corn, crambe, dried beans, dry peas, extra-long staple cotton, flaxseed, lentils, long grain and medium grain rice, millet, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, rapeseed, rye, safflower, sesame seed, small and large chickpeas, sorghum, soybeans, sunflower seed, temperate japonica rice, triticale, upland cotton, and wheat.
• specialty crops, including almonds, cranberries, cultivated ginseng, fresh grapes, fresh sweet cherries, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts.
• dairy and hogs.

MFP provides payments to eligible producers of covered commodities, which includes non-specialty crops, specialty crops, dairy, and livestock. 

To be eligible for payments, applicants also must either:

• have an average adjusted gross income for tax years 2015, 2016, and 2017 of less than $900,000; or
• derive at least 75 percent of their adjusted gross income from farming or ranching.

Producers also must:

• comply with the provisions of the “Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation” regulations, often called the conservation compliance provisions.
• have a farm number with USDA's Farm Service Agency.

In certain cases, producers who did not meet the adjusted gross income limitations for 2018 may now be eligible for payments under MFP.  

Payments are calculated differently by the type of commodity. 

Non-specialty Crops

For non-specialty crops, assistance is based on a single-county payment rate multiplied by a farm’s total plantings of MFP-eligible crops in aggregate in 2019. Those per-acre payments are not dependent on which of those crops are planted in 2019. A producer’s total payment-eligible plantings cannot exceed total 2018 plantings. County payment rates range from $15 to $150 per acre, depending on the impact of unjustified trade retaliation in that county. Acreage of non-specialty must be planted by August 1, 2019 to be considered eligible for MFP payments. 

    Download a list of all county rates
 

Dairy, Hogs, and Specialty Crops

Dairy producers who were in business as of June 1, 2019, will receive a per hundredweight payment on production history, and hog producers will receive a payment based on the number of live hogs owned on a day selected by the producer between April 1 and May 15, 2019. 

For specialty crops, producers will receive a payment based on 2019 acres of fruit or nut bearing plants.

Rates include:

• Dairy (milk): $0.20 per hundredweight
• Hogs: $11 per head
• Nuts: $146 per acre
• Cranberries: $.03 per pound at 21,371 pounds per acre 
• Ginseng: $2.85 per pound at 2,000 pounds per acre
• Sweet cherries (fresh): $0.17 per pound at 9,148 pounds per acre
• Table grapes: $0.03 per pound at 20,820 pounds per acre

Cover Crops

Producers affected by natural disasters who filed prevented planting claims then planted an MFP-eligible cover crop, with the potential to be harvested or for subsequent use as forage, qualify for a $15 per acre payment. Acreage of cover crops must be planted by August 1, 2019 to be considered eligible for MFP payments. 

Enrollment for the Market Facilitation Program opened on July 29, and FSA began issuing payments to producers the week of August 19. Weekly MFP payment updates will be posted every Monday.

As of December 21, FSA has paid $14,517 billion in MFP payments to farmers. The top five states were Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, and Kansas.

    Download the Latest Payment Report (PDF)