Originally published on 12/9/25

President Donald Trump recently announced a $12 billion aid package for farmers all across the United States. The news comes after the president’s highly discussed tariffs and ongoing trade war with China caused a massive financial rift in the agriculture industry, which was heightened by the recent controversy surrounding American soybean sales. Below, we share what the aid package is and provide details on when farmers can expect to see the money. Read on for more. 

What to know about the $12 billion farmers aid package 

On Monday, December 8, President Trump announced he would be creating a $12 billion aid package entitled the Farm Bridge Assistance program to help farmers. This move comes after China recently announced they would begin buying American soybeans after a months-long pause that caused financial trouble for farmers and the American economy.  The funds in the new package come from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Commodity Credit Corporation fund and will be offset by tariff revenue. 

By creating this relief, the White House hopes they can “provide much-needed certainty to farmers as they get this year’s harvest to market and look ahead to next year’s crop. And it’ll help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families,” says President Trump. 

“The plan we are announcing today ensures American farmers can continue to plan for the next crop year. It is imperative we do what it takes to help our farmers, because if we cannot feed ourselves, we will no longer have a country,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who was appointed by Trump in November of last year, added in an additional statement. “With this program serving as a bridge to the improvements President Trump and Republicans in Congress have made, it will allow farmers to leverage strengthened price protection risk management tools and the reliability of fair trade deals so they do not have to depend on large ad hoc assistance packages from the government.”

Of that $12 billion, $11 billion goes directly to farmers who grow row crops (barley, chickpeas, corn, cotton, lentils, oats, peanuts, peas, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame and sunflower). The remaining aid is expected to go to farmers who produce fruits, vegetables and other crops, but according to Secretary Rollins, the details for those payments are still in the works.  

“The critical assistance announced today will help farmers obtain financing for 2026 and serve as a bridge to the long-term improvements to the farm safety net, which were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill,” California congressman Doug LaMalfa said in a statement earlier this week. “I look forward to working with President Trump and Secretary Rollins on assessing any additional needs in farm country and continuing to support America’s farmers and ranchers as the Administration works to bring down costs, secure new trade deals, and ensure China lives up to its commitments.” 

How to get money from the new farmers aid package

In order to get money from the $12 billion aid package farmers must fill out an application that will be sent out in the  upcoming weeks. Once approved, people can expect to see the payments arrive in their account on Saturday, February 28, 2026. 

The exact amount people will receive is expected to vary for each farmer. According to Richard Fordyce, USDA under secretary for farm production and conservation, this number will be calculated by how many acres the farmers have planted, their production costs and other factors that have yet to be shared. 

To help maximize how much you get, the USDA recommends farmers “ensure their 2025 acreage reporting is factual and accurate by 5 pm ET on December 19, 2025.” 

“Farmers have had an exceptionally difficult year. And, really, it’s been a difficult last couple of years,” Patrick Thomas from The Wall Street Journal told PBS.“By February, the USDA secretary said that they will start sending one-time cash payments to farmers as kind of a Band-Aid fix, if you will, for over this last year of troubles and, again, what has been a challenging year.” 

“It doesn’t long-term fix some of the market issues. You have this deal with China that has–some farmers are still skeptical about China holding up its end of the bargain, if we’re going to have long-term problems with their buying,” he continued. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty about what the market is for trade and demand long term for the amount of crops that we produce in this country.”