Farmers say Title One — a farm bill program that sends money when crop prices or harvests get low enough — isn’t working as a buffer against tough years. Yet others argue the nearly 100-year-old safety net is costing billions of dollars with few strings attached. Crop support programs are supposed to help smooth out the edges on hard farming years. The government sends payments to keep farmers out of bankruptcy and get them back in their fields for the next planting season.
But Chris Tanner, a farmer in northwest Kansas, hasn’t gotten one of those checks in several years.
Prices haven’t dipped low enough to trigger support under Title One, the farm bill program that sends crop support payments. In fact, Tanner and other farmers said they’d probably go broke before Title One kicks in.
“It’s well below the cost of production,” he said. “It wouldn’t even come close to paying half of your input costs. The prices need to be updated, because it’s a joke.”
As lawmakers hash out a new Farm Bill this year, many farmers and advocacy groups are pushing for higher reference prices in the Title One program.
“Title One does not work,” Tanner said. “The reference price is far too low. I kind of jokingly referred to it as ‘If we don't get the reference price raised, it's not a safety net, it's a safety asphalt.’”
Source: iowapublicradio.org
Categories: Kansas, Crops