Home/News from NPR/The USDA Is Set To Give Black Farmers Debt Relief. They’ve Heard That One Before The USDA Is Set To Give Black Farmers Debt Relief. They’ve Heard That One Before By Emma Hurt June 4, 2021 Farmers of color are set to get some unprecedented debt relief starting this month from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The latest federal COVID aid package includes an estimated $4 billion for the USDA to wipe away these farmers’ debts. It’s an unprecedented Congressional mandate to make up for the damage that decades of lending discrimination has had on farmers of color. The distrust runs so deep that the department has been dubbed “the last plantation.”