摘要：The impacts of six consecutive years of large harvests for the world's major agricultural producingcountries are clearly reflected in USDA's initial income forecast for the year 2000. By historicalstandards, this period has been unusually favorable for crop production. At the conclusion of 1999,supplies of most agricultural commodities remained abundant due to large crop harvests around theworld. The outlook for farm product demand suggests little or no near-term growth. As a result, asignificant and sustained commodity price recovery is unlikely in the near-term without unfavorableweather. In both 1998 and 1999, the U.S. government reacted with legislation to increase assistance tofarmers. Payments forthcoming as part of emergency legislation coupled with the first extensive use ofthe Loan Deficiency Payment Program has helped to maintain farm income and temper financialhardship for many producers (figure 1).
