This story was produced with the Border Belt Independent, which is part of The Assembly’s statewide network of local news outlets. 

North Carolina farmers still recovering from flooding and drought say they are frustrated by delays in federal payments under the Trump administration. 

The payments were frozen in January when President Donald Trump’s administration paused a wide range of federal spending. Farmers say they haven’t received expected payments linked to conservation loan programs, projects aimed at combating climate change, and emergency loans for farmers in disaster areas. The administration is also reviewing the Inflation Reduction Act, a 2022 federal spending package that includes programs for farmers of color, first-time farmers, and farmers in poverty.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in late February that $20 million in payments connected to the conservation programs was released, but hundreds of millions in other payments remain frozen. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Directors of Farm Service Agencies in rural southeastern North Carolina say their offices have received numerous emails and phone calls from farmers frustrated by the delays. The agencies, which are part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are responsible for distributing federal payments to local farmers. 

Agency directors reached by the Border Belt Independent declined to be named or quoted for this story, saying they feared backlash from the Trump administration.

Much of the unpaid funds are for conservation loan programs or projects aimed at helping farmers combat climate change. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, the branch of USDA that oversees most conservation programs, has 4,162 agreements with farmers this year totaling $358 million—including 46 contracts worth $4 million in North Carolina, according to its website. 

Under many of the contracts, farmers pay out of pocket for equipment and supplies and get reimbursed by the USDA. Without cash flow out of Washington, those farmers could be strapped with debt.

Some farmers in North Carolina receive annual operating loans from the USDA, which have not come through, Farm Service Agency directors said. Many more should have received federal payments for disaster recovery following crop losses caused by drought.

Signs of high crop yields in early spring last year quickly evaporated as June brought intense drought and record-low rainfall. Later in the summer came Hurricane Helene and other storms, flooding what remained of corn crops and ruining the soils for the rest of the harvest. Farmers left with lower crop yields and less revenue were desperate for help.

“Coming out of a year like we just did, cash is already short,” said Ethan Jordan, a farmer in Columbus County who lost nearly all of his 900 acres of corn, 350 acres of peanuts, and 350 acres of soybean crops to the drought. 

Jordan was supposed to receive about $77,000 from the USDA this year to help make up for his lost crops. While the money isn’t his main source of income, he said every penny counts after a year like 2024. “I really would’ve liked to have had that money a month or so ago,” he said. He had expected his funds to arrive in January; now, he’s hoping for mid-March.

“The western part of the state lost their homes to a flood,” Jordan said. “In the eastern side, if we don’t get some help, we’re going to lose our house to the bank.”

There is also another challenge: delays in reauthorizing the Farm Bill. The legislation provides funding for crop insurance, conservation programs, and farm loans—some of the same programs caught up in the USDA payment backlog. Congress is two years behind in renewing the legislation, and lawmakers have called for billions in cuts to its future spending.

That means farmers who are waiting on disaster aid won’t be properly reimbursed for their losses. The disaster aid program operates under outdated price structures that no longer reflect the cost of farming. When Jordan loses his corn crop, for example, the amount he is paid from the USDA is based on 2014 prices. 

“They already should be paying us more than they do for our crops because Lord knows a lot has changed since 2014,” Jordan said. “But right now, we also need to make sure they pay us at all.”

Ahead of the spring growing season, Jordan is buying fertilizer and seed and fixing up his equipment.

“We knew the administration changes would shake things up,” Jordan said. “But we didn’t expect it to be this severe.”

Steven Smith, a farmer in Bladen County, said he expected the change under the Trump administration.

“It was like this last time he was in office,” said Smith, who voted for Trump in the 2024 and 2020 elections. “It started off rough and chaotic, but in the long term, farmers benefited from his policies. That’s what I expect to happen this time.”

Trump acknowledged the impact of changing federal policies on farmers in an address to a joint session of Congress last week.

“[There] may be a little bit of an adjustment period,” the president said of his trade policy plans, adding that the situation was similar after his 2016 election. “I said, ‘Just bear with me,’ and they did. They did. Probably have to bear with me again. And this will be even better.”

The funding hold-ups have been coupled with large cuts to the USDA workforce. The Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, fired nearly 6,000 USDA employees who were on probationary status last month. A federal body said on Wednesday that those employees should be reinstated for 45 days while a challenge to the terminations plays out. 

“The staff capacity crisis in North Carolina is bordering on paralysis,” said Aaron Johnson, policy director at Rural Advancement Foundation International, which advocates for equitable food systems and farmers of color. “It is going to really degrade USDA’s ability to offer the basic supportive services that farmers expect.”

Farmer support groups like Johnson’s say the funding freezes and staffing cuts have been indiscriminate in their widespread impact on farmers across the state.

Johnson said lawmakers should also be on the hook for not stepping in to protect farmers. He said the funding problems are part of a larger “insidious” effort to erode public trust in the government and limit access to necessary services for lower-income farmers.

“If something like [Natural Resources Conservation Service] is eliminated, then the only option for developing a conservation plan, for example, would be in the private sector for thousands of dollars,” Johnson said. “That’s only going to be accessible to the wealthiest and corporatized farming interests.”

More than half of Rural Advancement Foundation International’s budget for programs like emergency disaster aid comes from federal grants, and much of its work is now halted. Johnson said that means farmers in North Carolina will be forced to dip into their personal savings or take out emergency loans to avoid losing their farms. 

Jaylen Cates, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor who studies the intersection of food systems and social work, said the Trump administration’s actions, including pausing distribution of climate spending under the Inflation Reduction Act, will especially hurt farmers of color. 

Johnson agreed, adding that the Trump administration’s executive orders ending diversity, equity, and inclusion policies will leave non-white farmers behind. Farmers of color have historically had difficulty obtaining loans from the USDA and have been pushed off their land due to federal agricultural policies, along with other discriminatory practices. 

“The USDA has a history of discrimination and not serving farmers of color in equitable ways,” Johnson said. “I think it’s fair to anticipate that we’ll be set back potentially decades in terms of the trust in that community.”

As farmers and experts sound the alarm, advocacy groups are mobilizing to push for solutions. Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a nonprofit that supports small farmers in North Carolina, launched a petition on February 19 demanding access to frozen funds. The petition also includes a form for farmers to fill out, asking which programs owe funding and for how much. Matt Kneece, the association’s policy director, said the group has received more than three dozen responses. 

“These funding interruptions are affecting sustainable farms, food businesses, and agricultural nonprofits across the Carolinas,” the petition says. “If this continues, critical programs for farmers, local food systems, and rural communities could be at risk.”

Kneece said the organization and other statewide farmer advocacy groups are still working to understand the extent of the funding freezes’ impact, which has proven difficult due to a lack of communications from the USDA. He also said after talking to lawmakers in Washington, that some of them appear to see farmers as “collateral damage” for policy shakeups in Washington.

“We found that farmers have been dehumanized in the face of this funding freeze,” he said. “All we can do is tell farmers to take it one day at a time.”

Ben Rappaport is a reporter at the Border Belt Independent. A graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism & Media at UNC-Chapel Hill, he previously worked for the Chatham News + Record.