By Ryan Hanrahan
AgroLatam’s Marcus Ellington reported that “the Trump administration announced eight fertilizer manufacturing projects representing more than $1.34 billion in proposed investment, including approximately $573 million in USDA funding, to expand domestic production and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.”
“Vice President J.D. Vance and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins unveiled the selections Thursday under the Fertilizer Investment & Expansion for Long-Term Domestic Supply (FIELDS) Program,” Ellington reported. “The initiative targets one of the most significant cost pressures facing U.S. farmers while positioning fertilizer manufacturing as a national security priority.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch’s Cami Koons reported that “in a virtual press conference Thursday, USDA staff said the projects, which are funded through the Fertilizer Investment & Expansion for Long-Term Domestic Supply, or FIELDS, program, are expected to break ground in weeks, be completed in 2027 or 2028 and cause a ‘drastic price drop’ for fertilizer products once brought online.”
“Rollins said the (FIELDS) program is part of the administration’s goal to change ‘decades of policy and consolidation’ that have led top agriculture companies to continue to post profits while farmers have had to rely on government bailouts – like the $8 billion program announced Monday – to ‘barely’ survive to the next year,” Koons reported.
Source : illinois.edu