Specialty crops focus of several farm bill draft provisions

Specialty crops are addressed in several provisions in a farm bill draft released Feb. 13 by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, including increased funding for federal programs aimed at promoting market access.

The draft is set for markup the week of the National Potato Council Washington Summit, which begins Feb. 23.

A full farm bill, typically passed about every five years, has not been enacted since 2018, with Congress extending funding provisions in various bills and continuing resolutions.

“A new farm bill is long overdue, and the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 is an important step forward in providing certainty to our farmers, ranchers and rural communities,” Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, house ag committee chair, said in a statement.

The draft addresses specialty crops in steps including:

• Establishing a framework for delivering future assistance to specialty crops and creating standing authority to deliver ad hoc disaster assistance via block grants to states
• Increasing funding for the Market Access Program (MAP), Foreign Market Development Program (FMD), Emerging Markets Program (EMP), Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) and Priority Trade Fund (PTF)
• Requiring a report to Congress detailing the policies or practices of foreign countries that act as barriers to specialty crop exports or those that heighten the competitiveness of imported specialty crops with domestic producers
• Providing $30 million per year from the Specialty Crop Research Initiative to fund a new Specialty Crop Mechanization and Automation Research and Extension Program
• Establishing a stakeholder consultation process in the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to direct program administrators to consult with producers when setting priorities and reauthorizing the authorization of appropriations for the Specialty Crops Market News Allocation
• Forming a specialty crop advisory committee to ensure the perspectives of the specialty crop industry “have a seat at the table for policy development and expansion”
• Creating a pricing library for specialty crops

“We thank Chairman Thompson for starting the farm bill process with the release of this bill,” Dean Gibson, NPC vice president of legislative affairs, said in a statement.

The full text (.pdf) and an overview (.pdf) of the bill are available online.