North Dakota producers receive payouts from the USDA after filling for discrimination against farm lending programs

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - Some producers across the country who said they experienced discrimination from government farm lending programs may start seeing some relief.

The USDA said the current administration is issuing payments to producers for the Inflation Reduction Act’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, which went into effect last month.

More than 43,000 farmers, ranchers and forest landowners in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, received financial assistance.

Congress allocated $2.2 billion to the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program.

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said 110 of the recipients are in North Dakota.

Goehring said there are cases where the Department of Agriculture has seen people not get financial assistance for unfair and discriminatory reasons.

But Goehring said on some of the applications, it looks like some people were abusing the program.

“Farmers and ranchers inherently have a lot of risk in the business. And when they look at this, they look at the situation with respect to how can we manage and mitigate risk versus going back and just giving money,” said Goehring.

Goehring said many of the applicants’ plans were not economically viable.

“There’s a reason why it wasn’t approved to begin with. So, what happens is it creates this element and this consternation out there about we’re just giving money to people,” said Goehring.

Goehring said this is irritating for farmers and ranchers who work hard in the state.

The USDA said, on average, recipients received about $82,000.

The applications were accepted from July 7, 2023, to January 17, 2024. It’s for those who said they experienced discrimination before January 2021.

All decisions and awards were made by the end of July.