The U.S. Department of Agriculture will dole out $8 billion to farmers to offset rising diesel fuel prices.
Under the new Harvest Fuel Relief program, the one-time assistance package aims to ease temporary market disruptions and higher input costs.
“When Republicans win, we will pass even more funding for our farmers. We love our farmers,” President Trump said Monday night at a rally in Kansas.
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U.S. diesel prices, which reached a record of $6.53 a gallon on Sept. 22 and are averaging over $6.30 a gallon, have severely strained farmers during the fall harvest.
The Harvest Fuel Relief program will provide payments to producers using a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses during the 2026 crop year, the USDA said. The formula will use a national loss average based on Farm Service Agency planted acres, Economic Research Service cost-of-production estimates and USDA yield and price projections.
Commodity-specific payment rates will be released in November.
Farmers do not need crop insurance to qualify and can prepare to apply by creating a Login.gov account linked to the USDA.
In its Sept. 3 forecast, the USDA Economic Research Service projected that 2026 net farm income will fall 2.6% to $158.4 billion, not adjusted for inflation, as production costs rise 4.5% and fuel and oil expenses jump nearly 30%.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the investment will “help bring certainty to our farmers during this harvest so they can continue to feed our nation.”
During his campaign remarks Monday night, Mr. Trump said Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas fought for the initiative.
“To every Kansas farmer who kept harvesting through soaring diesel costs: help is on the way,” Mr. Marshall said in a statement. “After hearing directly from Kansas farmers about the strain these rising diesel costs were putting on their operations, we brought these concerns directly to President Trump and Secretary Rollins, urging them to provide relief.”
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall welcomed the program.
“We look forward to working with the president and USDA to ensure specialty crop growers, livestock producers, fishermen and others get the support they need so they can continue growing the food America’s families rely on,” Mr. Duvall said in a statement.
This move comes as the Trump administration seeks to ease the pain of diesel costs heading into the consequential midterm elections.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order Oct. 5 that temporarily allows dyed diesel to be used on highways and directs the Treasury Department to consider deferring the 24.4 cents-per-gallon federal diesel tax on that fuel through Dec. 31.
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