CAIRO, Ga. — Farming industry figures are optimistic about southwestern Georgia’s agricultural economy following last week’s ratification of the 2018 Farm Bill in Congress.

Marjory Walker, director of communications for the National Cotton Council of America, said the the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 accomplishes many of the priorities of the hard-hit cotton industry, still reeling from a devastating blow from Hurricane Michael in October.

Walker said that’s good news for Grady County, a top cotton producer in the state that plants approximately 23,000 acres of the crop each year.

“The new farm bill will provide some much-needed certainty and predictability to cotton growers in Grady County,” Walker said. “The continued safety net is especially crucial as producers have faced devastating natural disasters this growing season, compounding producers’ financial strains from retaliatory trade tariffs on U.S. cotton.”

Walker cited the continuation of seed cotton’s eligibility in the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs as one reason why the industry supported the bill.

Don Koehler, executive director of the Georgia Peanut Commission, said the bill provides much-needed security to the agriculture industry that will have a rippling effect throughout the rest of the state.

“(Peanuts are) important in Grady, and in the state it adds about $600 million to our economy,” Koehler said. “If you take and multiply that out and look at your farm supplies, tractor dealers, car dealers and everybody else, that takes it up to over $2 billion.”

Koehler said bringing stability to agriculture, which he pointed out is one of the largest industries in the state, will benefit everyone regardless of their line of work.

Ty Torrance, extension officer for the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Office in Cairo, said he was still waiting for additional specifics about the language of the bill but believed it would overall be positive for Grady County farmers.

“We do know that farmers will have a one-time opportunity to update payment yields on their farm,” Torrance said in an email. “This is something that really needed to be done.”

Torrance noted that farmers would be able to change their election between ARC and PLC protections on an annual basis beginning in 2021.

Taylor Sills, director of public affairs for the Georgia Cotton Commission, said the bill will be beneficial to farmers of any crop.

“When a farmer goes to his or her lending institution they can say, ‘I need X amount of dollars and this is what I’m going to do,’” Sills said. “There’s at least this market stability in these risk-management tools and price support programs that the farm bill gives them.”

Sills said those price support programs are necessary given the sometimes unpredictable nature of the market.

“In a perfect world the prices would be high and we don’t have to use government programs, but it doesn’t always work out that way,” Sills said.

The farm bill cleared both chambers of Congress last week by wide margins and now awaits signature from President Donald Trump before becoming law.

U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Albany), who voted in favor of the legislation, urged the president to quickly sign the bill into law.

“The extension of the crop insurance and commodity programs in the Farm Bill will help provide certainty to farmers in Grady County already dealing with the impacts of Hurricane Michael,” said Jonathan Black, communications director for Bishop. “Additionally, the rural development investments authorized by the Farm Bill will ensure Grady County and other rural communities receive resources for health care, first responder services, housing, and water, electric, and communications infrastructure.”

Bishop initially voted against a version of the bill that failed earlier in the year. The current version of the bill passed 369-47 in the House and 87-13 in the Senate.

The new farm bill, if signed into law, will expire in 2023.