Following up on comments made by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a recent Senate hearing, USDA released plans to distribute an estimated $6 billion in crop disaster payments that will soon be sent to recipients based on crop insurance data. The new Emergency Relief Program (ERP) administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) will offset crop yield and value losses from natural disaster events in 2020 and 2021.
For impacted producers, existing Federal Crop Insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) data is the basis for calculating initial payments. USDA estimates that phase one ERP benefits will reach more than 220,000 producers who received indemnities for losses covered by federal crop insurance and more than 4,000 producers who obtained NAP coverage for 2020 and 2021 crop losses.
Most producers can receive up to $900,000 for specialty crops and $250,000 for other crop losses, representing between 75% and 95% of a farmer’s 2020 and 2021 losses. To expedite benefits, USDA will send pre-filled application forms where it has sufficient data. phase two will be available for producers where there isn’t enough data currently available.
Vilsack says the streamlined application process will result in checks arriving to producers sometime later this month or in early June. According to Vilsack, this offers a more efficient and rapid system to provide payments, rather than in the past that took a number of months before receiving payments.
“These emergency relief payments will help offset the significant crop losses due to major weather events in 2020 and 2021 and help ensure farming operations are viable this crop year, into the next growing season and beyond,” Vilsack stated.
Additional funds still coming
The second phase of both ERP and ELRP programs will fill gaps and cover producers who did not participate in or receive payments through the existing programs that are being leveraged for phase one implementation. When phase one payment processing is complete, the remaining funds will be used to cover gaps identified under phase two.
Vilsack adds the Milk Loss Program and On-Farm Stored Commodity Loss Program are also funded through the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act and will be announced sometime this summer.
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