By Ryan Hanrahan
Politico’s Rachel Shin reported that “the government shutdown is creating financial heartburn for farmers across the country, stalling the delivery of farm loans, the release of critical market reports and the Trump administration’s plans for cash bailouts.”
“Producers of row crops like corn, wheat and soybeans have for months been weathering tariff uncertainty and high input costs for things like fertilizer and machinery, while hoping that President Donald Trump will open new markets for their products or send them financial assistance, as he did during his first-term trade war with China,” Shin reported. “The absence of those things — in combination with the shutdown — has heightened concern at a time when farmers need to start making decisions about how to pay for next year’s planting season.”
“‘Every day that the government isn’t open, there’s slightly more anxiety in farm country, especially as growers are harvesting and having to pay bills and having to pay off their bank,’ Russell Williams, a Texas-based corn and wheat farmer, said in an interview,” according to Shin’s reporting. “‘There’s serious risks of farm bankruptcies this year.'”
The New York Times’ Eileen Sullivan reported that “the shutdown has also scrambled planning for American farmers, many of whom were beginning to make decisions about next year’s crops. Those plans depend on information only the federal government can provide, such as what loans, farm and conservation payments will be available and specific market data to help make decisions about what to plant.”
Source : illinois.edu