Two new revenue based assistance programs are available to agricultural producers.
USDA announced the programs earlier this year, to complete and fill gaps in previous natural disaster and pandemic assistance, the agency said in a press release.
The programs are Emergency Relief Program Phase 2 and 2020 Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program.
Producers will need to use information from their tax documents or other personal financial records and it will take some time to complete the application process.
Applications must be submitted by June 2.
A free webinar will provide information about these programs. It will also briefly address other programs, including those designed to address the ongoing drought.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is teaming up with the USDA Farm Service Agency to provide the webinar.
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It will be at noon CT Thursday. Register ahead of time at cap.unl.edu/webinars.
ERP Phase 2 is primarily for producers of crops that were not covered by federal crop insurance or NAP, since crops covered by federal crop insurance and NAP were included in the assistance under ERP Phase 1. However, producers who received ERP Phase 1 payments are not prohibited from applying for ERP Phase 2.
To be eligible for ERP Phase 2 producers must have suffered a decrease in allowable gross revenue in 2020 or 2021 due to necessary expenses related to losses of eligible crops from a qualifying natural disaster event.
To be eligible for PARP a person must have been in the business of farming during at least part of the 2020 calendar year and had a 15% or greater decrease in allowable gross revenue for the year, as compared to either 2018 or 2019
PARP will help address gaps in previous pandemic assistance, which was targeted at price loss or lack of market access, rather than overall revenue losses.
When calculating gross revenue, this program will account for previous pandemic-related assistance payments made to producers, such as Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) 1 and 2 payments and Emergency Relief Program Phase 1 payments, among others.
For more information, producers should contact their local USDA-FSA service center. They can also find information at fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/emergency-relief and farmers.gov/coronavirus/pandemic-assistance/parp.
