S. 4860: Cultivating Horticultural Innovation in Local Economies Act of 2026

This bill would create a new federal program to help growers of specialty crops—such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and similar higher-value crops—when their production is hurt by an adverse event. The adverse event could include things like a natural disaster, an economic crisis, or a market disruption, if the Secretary of Agriculture decides it qualifies.

What the new program would do

The bill directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to set up a framework for direct financial assistance to specialty crop producers whose crops are affected. The program would be built into existing agricultural law and could also be used for assistance provided through the Commodity Credit Corporation if needed.

How payments would be calculated

Payments would be based mainly on a producer’s specialty crop sales from a prior year or average sales from prior years, multiplied by a payment factor set by the Secretary of Agriculture. That factor would be intended to reflect the losses caused by the adverse event and would depend on available funding.

Rules the Secretary would need to consider

When setting up and running the assistance, the Secretary would need to take into account:

• the generally higher value of specialty crops compared with other crops;
• the higher costs often needed to grow them; and
• the different business structures used by specialty crop producers.

Limits on payments

The bill places caps on how much a person or business can receive in a crop year. In general, the limit would follow the same payment cap rules that already apply to certain farm programs. However, if at least 75% of a recipient’s average gross income comes from farming, ranching, or forestry, that general cap would not apply. In those cases, the Agriculture Secretary would set the limit, but it could not be less than $900,000.

Eligibility and disclosure rules

The bill says that existing federal rules on reporting interests, eligibility, and denials of benefits for farm programs would apply to specialty crop producers in largely the same way they apply to producers of covered commodities, with some exceptions tied to the structure of those rules.

Funding

The bill would provide $5 billion in mandatory funding for fiscal year 2027, available until spent, to pay for direct assistance under this new specialty crop framework.

Relevant Companies

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