USDA Unveils $8 Billion ‘Harvest Fuel Relief’ Program as Diesel Costs Squeeze Farmers

The Agriculture Department will send $8 billion in one-time payments to farmers hit by soaring fuel and input costs this year, Secretary Brooke Rollins announced late Monday after President Donald Trump campaigned in Kansas. The money will not reach farmers before the Nov. 3 election.

Rollins announced the Harvest Fuel Relief program after Trump’s rally in Wichita for Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., whose reelection race The Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up, DTN reported. “President Trump is the most pro-farmer president of my lifetime, and he is continuing to put farmers first every day,” Rollins said. “This $8 billion investment will help bring certainty to our farmers during this harvest so they can continue to feed our nation.”

How the Payments Will Work

According to USDA, the program is modeled on last year’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program and will use a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses for the 2026 crop year. The national loss estimate will be based on Farm Service Agency planted-acreage data, Economic Research Service cost-of-production estimates, and yields and prices from the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.

The payments are authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency, Feedstuffs reported. Payment rates for Title I commodities, the major row crops covered by the farm bill, will be released in November, with a methodology for other commodities to follow. Farmers will not be required to carry crop insurance to participate. The Michigan Farm Bureau reported that applications are expected to open in 2027.

USDA is asking specialty crop growers and fishermen to submit data on their increased fuel costs to HarvestFuel@usda.gov for consideration when payment rates are set. The department also urged producers to set up a Login.gov account so they can receive pre-filled applications.

Fuel Prices and Farm-State Politics

The announcement comes as high diesel prices worry Republicans in farm states with competitive races. Ahead of Trump’s trip, the Associated Press reported that diesel in Kansas cost $2.50 more per gallon than a year earlier, according to DTN. In Iowa, which also has a toss-up Senate race, the statewide diesel average rose to $6.07 per gallon, compared with $3.45 a year ago, and the national average stood at $6.30, DTN reported, citing Western Iowa Today.

DTN noted that it is unclear how much the payments will offset rising fuel costs or whether they will influence farmers’ votes. The American Farm Bureau Federation has repeatedly published analyses on the strain fuel prices are putting on producers.

USDA pointed to earlier aid as part of a broader record. The department said the Farmer Bridge Assistance program delivered $12 billion to more than 560,000 farmers and that nearly $14 billion in Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage payments went out two weeks ago under the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, the name Republicans now use for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The relief program is separate from the administration’s recent agreement to import Russian diesel, which officials have defended as a way to ease fuel prices but which has drawn bipartisan criticism in Congress, according to the AP and the BBC.

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