Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM / Getty Images
President Joe Biden announced three initiatives to help American farmers to increase its production and partially correct the grains that Ukraine produced and that it has stopped exporting due to the Russian invasion.
During While visiting a family farm in Illinois, the president rolled out policies intended to increase harvests in ways the administration believes could also help lower grocery prices, that have increased to a historical maximum in recent months.
The changes include:
– Doubling the funds for the national production of fertilizers a $500 million dollars – Increased access to farm management tools for plant and soil needs s
– Funds to increase the number of counties eligible for the “double cropping” insurance , so that farmers can reuse their land to plant in the same year
“I am here today to thank American farmers who are the breadbasket of democracy,” Biden said.
“We can make sure that US agricultural exports will make up for the gap in Ukrainian supplies,” he added.
Biden noted that Ukraine has stocks 20 million metric tons of wheat and corn that the United States and its allies are trying to get out of the country. Which would help address some supply issues.
The war in Ukraine has disrupted that country’s supply of wheat to world markets, At the same time it has caused an increase in the cost of wheat, oil, natural gas and fertilizers .
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said that its food price index in April increased almost 30% compared to the previous year , although the index decreased slightly on a monthly basis.
Americans are also suffering, as food prices rose 9.4% from a year earlier, the largest increase in 41 years.
However, there are limits to the amount of wheat the US can produce pa to compensate for any shortage.
The Department of Agriculture estimated in March that they planted 47.4 million acres of wheat this year, an increase of only 1% from 2021. This would be the fifth lowest number of acres devoted to wheat on record going back to 1919.
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