The U.S. Department of Agriculture will send $8 billion in one-time payments to farmers this harvest season to offset higher fuel and input costs.
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WASHINGTON D.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will send $8 billion in one-time payments to farmers this harvest season to offset higher fuel and input costs.
President Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the Harvest Fuel Relief program on October 19, 2026. It is the second large emergency payment to farmers in under a year, following the $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program in late 2025.
Rollins called the new money "more targeted relief" meant to bring certainty during harvest.
U.S. diesel averaged $6.27 a gallon on October 20, up $2.656 from a year earlier. The main driver of those cost increases is a global supply squeeze caused by the Strait of Hormuz closure following the US attack on Iran. Policy responses so far have not brought prices down. Diesel still rose 10 cents in the week before Harvest Fuel Relief was announced.
Fertilizer is the other half of the input-cost shock farmers are facing. American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) projects 2026 fertilizer spending at a record $40 billion, up 15% from 2025, according to its September analysis. Like diesel, fertilizer costs surged nationally after the Strait of Hormuz closed in early March following the start of the Iran War.
Together, the fertilizer and diesel shocks lift per-acre production costs above USDA's pre-Hormuz projections by about $30 for corn, $14 for soybeans, $30 for cotton and more than $70 for rice.
The Harvest Fuel Relief program is modeled on the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program, which Trump and Rollins announced in December 2025. USDA says FBA delivered $12 billion in one-time payments to more than 560,000 farmers. The FBA was needed last year after the Trump administration's broad tariffs on imports drew retaliation from trading partners, including China.
China halted U.S. soybean purchases in May 2025 in retaliation for new tariffs. China had previously bought more than half of all U.S. soybean exports over the prior five years, per the Iowa Farm Bureau.
The higher diesel costs have affected more than just farmers. At least 16 U.S. trucking companies filed for bankruptcy between late August and late September 2026. And the Okeechobee County School District is facing an increase of $100,000 in unbudgeted transportation costs due to the rise is diesel prices.
