Ag News: Phase One Signing and Hemp Crop Insurance
**President Trump says signing of the first phase of a China trade deal will be next Wednesday, January 15th, an agreement that sees China raising purchases of American farm goods in exchange for lower tariffs on some of its products.
He Tweets the ceremony will take place at the White House, adding he’ll be going to Beijing, where talks will begin on the second phase of the deal.
According to milkbusiness.com, the move at least temporarily calm fears of an escalating trade war between the two nations.
**USDA announced last week it's rolling out federal crop insurance for hemp growers.
USDA's Risk Management Agency pilot insurance program will cover the 2020 hemp crop in certain counties within 21 states.
Agweb.com reports, this is the first federal crop insurance program to protect against yield loss in hemp grown for fiber, grain or CBD.
Western states included in the program are California, Oregon, Colorado and Montana.
**Fresh potato prices have roughly doubled after a poor growing year and a frosty harvest caused American production to drop 6% in 2019.
But, according to potatogrower.com, Idaho spud growers able to get their harvest out of the ground, and who sell their spuds on the fresh market, are benefiting from the sky-high prices.
While production did drop significantly this year, experts don’t expect there to be a potato shortage.
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