US crop farmers seek $15bn in emergency aid as trade pressures mount
In 2025, crop farmers in the USA lost $34.6m, according to the American Farm Bureau agricultural organisation and lobbying group.
American crop farmers are set to receive $12bn in aid at the end of the month, but agricultural leaders in Congress are calling for a second $15bn package to offset what a bipartisan group of former agricultural leaders warned could be a “widespread collapse of American agriculture”.
In a letter to the leadership of the US House and Senate Agriculture Committees, they said a combination of a downturn cycle and Trump administration policies has left the sector in a precarious position.
The group said: “Farmer bankruptcies have doubled, barely half of all farms will be profitable this year, and the US is running a historic agriculture trade deficit.”
Statistics support their case. US soybean exports have fallen 50%, from 47% of the world market share in 2018 to just 24.4% today, while Brazil has gained more than 20% of the market.
About one-fifth of all US agricultural production is exported, and soybeans made up 13.9% of these exports by value in 2024.
Bankers reported a nearly 40% jump in new farm operating loans in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to a year earlier, according to a Federal Reserve survey. The average size of these loans was 30% bigger during 2025 than a year earlier, according to an analysis by Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City staff.
The letter to lawmakers was signed by a bipartisan group of 27 former agricultural executives and officials, including staffers in former Republican administrations and former heads of agriculture organisations such as pork and milk associations, as well as crop associations.
They acknowledged the problems were complex but said it “is clear that the current administration’s actions, along with congressional inaction, have increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labour pool, and defunded critical ag research and staffing.”
This began in Trump’s first term, with policies such as a trade war with China, which cut the American soybean industry’s market share. The president also pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement the letter said would have boosted farm exports by $4.4bn.
In the first year of his second term, Trump started tariff disputes with 60 countries, and the trade deficit for agriculture increased to $28.6bn in the first half of the year.
In 2025, crop farmers in the USA lost $34.6m, according to the American Farm Bureau agricultural organisation and lobbying group.
A trade deal with China last November recovered some lost soybean exports, and the administration in December announced $12bn in bridge payments for farmers “in response to temporary trade market disruptions,” while also blaming President Biden’s administration for agriculture difficulties.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Agriculture said: “President Trump is the most pro-farmer president of our lifetime,” citing more than 24 trade deals boosting market access and exports, lowering taxes, and improvements to the farm safety net.
However, the letter to Congress calls for more aid, pushing for the Trump administration to exempt all farm inputs from tariffs, roll back tariffs that hurt exports, pursue more free trade agreements, pass a new farm bill, reform farm labour policies, and fully fund staffing and research for agriculture.
Farmers will be one of the groups watching closely for a Supreme Court verdict on the legality of Trump’s tariffs.
The American farming industry had record profits in 2022, but has been hit by a global oversupply of grains and oilseeds, alongside rising input costs such as fertilisers.
Meanwhile, immigration crackdowns have increased labour costs and left some farms with crops rotting in fields.
The US Department of Agriculture estimates 42% of hired crop farmworkers are undocumented, with no authorisation to work, and another 26% are immigrants who have become citizens or permanent residents.
