Farmers in Louisiana are in position to get federal assistance because of President Trump’s $12 billion financial aid package for producers. LSU AgCenter economist Michael Deliberto with it comes as farmers suffered through a tough 2025.
“Farmers are still facing persistently low commodity prices, inflation, high input cost. And when you couple that with so much of this trade uncertainty, farm income has really been stressed going into almost its third year,” Deliberto said.
Deliberto says many of the losses farmers in Louisiana and across the country suffered were spurred by a slowdown amid tariffs imposed by the administration – and some of those losses are staggering.
“Some of the major crops we produce in the U.S., as well as in Louisiana: Corn, rice, cotton, soybeans. Those losses, on a per-acre basis, can easily exceed $100 and even, in some cases, approach $200 to $300,” Deliberto explained.
Deliberto says cotton, rice and soybean farmers have struggled the most this year. President Trump says the funding will come from tariff revenues.
Deliberto says the money is intended to help farmers pay down some of their debt.
“The program formula is going to be uniform across commodities. And that means the corn producer in Minnesota has the same payment rate as the corn producer in Louisiana would,” Deliberto noted.
The target date for the payments to go out would be sometime in February.
$11 billion is for row crop farmers, and the other $1 billion will be available for specialty crops like sugarcane.
