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Losses To Nebraska Agriculture Pegged At $4 Billion From Coronavirus Pandemic

Losses To Nebraska Agriculture Pegged At $4 Billion From Coronavirus Pandemic

Photo: WNAX


Nebraska’s State Agriculture Director says the amount of aid the USDA has come out with for agriculture nationally for coronavirus relief won’t go far enough to make up for losses experienced by his state’s producers. USDA has proposed $16 billion while Nebraska’s total ag cash receipts in 2018 totaled $21.1 billion. Director Steve Wellman says there’s been $4 billion in damage caused by the pandemic.

He says half of that damage has been experienced by the state’s ethanol industry.

Wellman says other areas of agriculture have also been effected with the damage hitting every segment of Nebraska’s Agriculture.

Wellman says part of the possible solutions to the damage include getting people driving again to boost biofuel demand and trying to get more federal government relief assistance out to producers, more than what’s presently proposed.

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