Government programs are only a “band-aid” when it comes to the farm economy, according to an economist

Other policy shifts are likely to impact ag exports. One economist warns products could start to build up and says government programs only go so far.

“Yes, government programs help, but that’s sort of a band-aid. And in the long term, there’s not a lot of risk management tools either. And so you think about crop insurance, it’s a year over year change, that it helps with working capital, can only last us so long. So these trade implosions is just an issue where we don’t have a lot of risk management. We don’t have a lot of policy programs to help fix that. And that’s why we’re thinking about that. I just, I think that the, the long tail on that could be really, really challenging,” said David Widmar.

Widmar also warns margins are likely to feel squeezed for some time. He tells aginfo.net more cuts will likely need to come before there is any kind of noticeable relief.

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“I’ll say first and foremost, we need to make sure that the crop insurance system is not conflicting with these good farming practices.”