WASHINGTON, DC – Despite the challenges faced by agriculture producers over the past few years, inflation-adjusted net cash farm income is expected to increase nearly 24 percent in 2020, according to the Economic Research Service (ERS). That increase, equal to $27 billion, is due in part to payments from supplemental and ad hoc disaster assistance from USDA and Congress. ERS also expects U.S. net farm income, a broader measure of farm sector profitability that incorporates changes in inventories, economic depreciation, and gross imputed rental income, to increase more than 44 percent for 2020. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. With direct government payments to farmers expected to fall $21.8 billion (46.3 percent) in 2021 after increasing $24 billion this past year, net farm income is forecast to fall for the first time since 2016: a 9.7 percent year-over-year decrease. The pain might be deeper if not for recovering commodity markets, as cash receipts for crops are projected to increase to $13.6 billion (3.6 percent) in 2021.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)