WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 -- President Barack Obama on Friday signed the new farm bill and announced a new initiative known as "Made in Rural America"during his inspection tour to the Michigan State University, Michigan.

The new farm bill would help rural communities grow, give farmers some certainty and put in place important reforms, said Obama."The second thing this farm bill does, that is huge, is help make sure America's children don't go hungry."

U.S. Republicans and Democrats finally agreed on the new farm bill after years of struggle and passed it in Congress Tuesday.

The bill would cost the U.S. federal government about 96 billion U.S. dollars a year, and about 80 percent of the money would go to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.

The new farm bill eliminated 5-billion-dollar direct payments and strengthened the role of crop insurance to protect farmers from weather disasters and market volatility and make up for the loss of those payments.

To promote agriculture exports, Obama launched a new "Made in Rural America" initiative.

"I'm directing my administration to launch a new 'Made in Rural America' initiative to help more rural businesses expand and hire and sell more products stamped 'made in the USA' to the rest of the world."

The United States has enjoyed strong performance in its farm economy during the past five years, according to the data released by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Friday.

The country's net farm income, adjusted for inflation, is forecast to reach 131 billion dollars last year, up 46 percent from 2008 and is believed to be the highest since 1973.

American agricultural exports totaled 144.1 billion dollars last year, also a record high. The period 2009-2013 stands as the strongest five-year period for agricultural exports in the American history with a total export value of more than 657 billion dollars.