Farm bill expands attention to specialty crop programs

A farm bill draft released Feb. 13 by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee includes a directive to create a framework for specialty crop disaster relief and increases funding for federal programs aimed at promoting market access.

The draft is set for markup the week of the National Potato Council Washington Summit, which begins Feb. 23.

A full farm bill, typically passed about every five years, has not been enacted since 2018, with Congress extending funding provisions in various bills and continuing resolutions.

“A new farm bill is long overdue, and the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 is an important step forward in providing certainty to our farmers, ranchers and rural communities,” Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, house ag committee chair, said in a statement.

The draft addresses specialty crops in steps including:

• Establishing a framework for delivering future assistance to specialty crops and creating standing authority to deliver ad hoc disaster assistance via block grants to states
• Increasing funding for the Market Access Program (MAP), Foreign Market Development Program (FMD), Emerging Markets Program (EMP), Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) and Priority Trade Fund (PTF)
• Requiring a report to Congress detailing the policies or practices of foreign countries that act as barriers to specialty crop exports or those that heighten the competitiveness of imported specialty crops with domestic producers
• Providing $30 million per year from the Specialty Crop Research Initiative to fund a new Specialty Crop Mechanization and Automation Research and Extension Program
• Establishing a stakeholder consultation process in the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to direct program administrators to consult with producers when setting priorities and reauthorizing the authorization of appropriations for the Specialty Crops Market News Allocation
• Forming a specialty crop advisory committee to ensure the perspectives of the specialty crop industry “have a seat at the table for policy development and expansion”
• Creating a pricing library for specialty crops

“We thank Chairman Thompson for starting the farm bill process with the release of this bill,” Dean Gibson, NPC vice president of legislative affairs, said in a statement.

The full text (.pdf) and an overview (.pdf) of the bill are available online.

The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance also applauded the attention paid to specialty crops in the draft.

“At a time when our producers confront unprecedented economic challenges, we are grateful that the chairman’s bill would require the United States Department of Agriculture to create the first-ever Specialty Crop Emergency Assistance Framework,” SCFBA said in a statement. “Based on the widely successful CFAP-2 and MASC programs, this framework would establish the parameters of a unique payment structure to compensate specialty crop producers in times of need.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include SCFBA comment.