Farm Service Agency Administrator Richard Fordyce spoke with South Dakota farmers on a conference call hosted by South Dakota Corn on Wednesday. He talked about the CFAP or Coronavirus Food Assistance Program that USDA has rolled out. He says while the aid will be helpful for producers it won’t cover all of their losses.

He says several commodities as well as Dairy and Cattle are all covered in the program. Fordyce explains why some were excluded from the assistance.

Fordyce says they were able to adjust the payment limits required with CFAP.

South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson joined Fordyce on the call with producers and introduced the FSA administrator at the beginning of the call. He says the amount of money Congress originally called for in the CFAP legislation does not do enough to help producers harmed by the pandemic.

Johnson says the CFAP funding that was approved by Congress only now covers about a fourth of the cost producers have incurred from the pandemic.