Trade

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Government payments to farmers are forecast to hit their highest level in more than a decade because of the trade assistance being provided to producers this year, and the total could go even higher if Congress, as expected, authorizes a new round of disaster aid.

The government is reopening for at least three weeks and the Agriculture Department plans to jump-start work on implementation the 2018 farm bill, a task that was interrupted just as it was beginning in December.

USDA will reopen all its Farm Service Agency offices on Thursday with furloughed workers providing an expanded set of services for farmers, including processing Market Facilitation Program applications.

President Donald Trump assured farmers struggling through a prolonged economic slump that better times are ahead for U.S. agriculture because of his efforts to lower trade barriers to American exports and roll back regulations.

In his kickoff speech at the outset of the 2019 American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention, AFBF President Zippy Duvall listed a laundry list of reasons why last year was one to forget in production agriculture, but said it was a banner year for Farm Bureau’s lobbying efforts.

President Donald Trump heads to New Orleans Monday to speak to the nation’s largest farm organization for a second year in a row, even as his trade war drags on and the shutdown of USDA and other departments and agencies important to agriculture entered its fourth week.