During a visit to Dramm Corp. today, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small announced that the Biden-Harris Administration is making investments that will strengthen American farms and businesses by expanding innovative domestic fertilizer production and increasing independent meat and poultry processing capacity, which will in turn increase competition and lower fertilizer costs for farmers and food costs for consumers.
The Department is awarding over $120 million today to fund six fertilizer production projects in Arkansas, California, Illinois, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (FPEP), which is funded by the Commodity Credit Corporation and provides funding to independent business owners to help them modernize equipment, adopt new technologies, build production plants and more.
In total, USDA is awarding over $120 million today to fund six fertilizer production projects in Arkansas, California, Illinois, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.
For example:
- Betley Farms LLC in Wisconsin is receiving a $3.5 million grant. The third-generation family farm will use the funding to install and operate a nutrient concentration system, which processes waste and produces nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium liquid and ammonium-potassium liquid fertilizers. The system is expected to yield 39 million gallons of liquid product per year and create nine new jobs.
- LSB Industries LLC in Arkansas is receiving a $77 million grant to expand production capacity of its urea and ammonium nitrate facility to 580,000 tons per year. The expanded capacity will allow product to be available to roughly 450,000 producers within a four-state region. This project is expected to create 20 full-time positions.
- Agtegra Cooperative in South Dakota is receiving a $3 million grant to build a new fertilizer manufacturing building and install two storage tanks with a combined capacity of 950,000 gallons. The project will also install a 500,000-gallon storage tank at each of its facilities in McLauglin and Kimball. The project is expected to increase fertilizer production from 26,175 tons to 53,270 tons per year.
To date, USDA has invested over $368 million in 67 projects through FPEP, creating new jobs and increasing domestic fertilizer production across the country.
USDA news release
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