Agricultural producers facing coronavirus-related hardships may soon apply for additional relief.
President Donald J. Trump and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue today announced up to an additional 14 billion dollars for agricultural producers who continue to face market disruptions and associated costs because of COVID-19. Iowa Farm Service Agency executive director Amanda De Jong offers additional insight into the program.
“We have three categories this round,” De Jong says. “We have what we’re calling ‘Sales Commodities.’ Those are things like specialty crops and aquaculture. We’re using more of a 2019 based sales approach for those commodities.”
“We have a second category (that) we’re calling the ‘Price Trigger Commodities.’ Those are going to be the largest segment of Iowa applications,” De Jong says. “That’s going to be our row crops and livestock – Hogs, cattle, sheep and lambs, bison, and dairy. Those are major commodities that saw a five-percent price decline.”
“Then the last category is going to be the ‘Flat-Rate Crops.’ These were crops that didn’t meet that five-percent price decline trigger or we don’t have data to calculate a price change,” De Jong says. “We’re going to do 15-dollars an acre on all eligible 2020 acres. Those are going to apply to things like alfalfa – Certified alfalfa, not mixed grass or hay. Hemp is (also) going to fall into that category.”
The program features improvements, “based off of stakeholder engagement and public feedback to better meet the needs of impacted farmers and ranchers.” However, some aspects remain the same.
“It’s still simple. The calculations are different. How we get to the ultimate payment is different, but the program itself is going to be simple for producers,” De Jong said. “Again, I should preface this all by saying, this is again a self-certified program, just like CFAP 1.”
Applications become available on Monday, September 21. Eligible producers should contact their local Farm Service Agency office prior to stopping by. Materials can be collected over the phone, over email, and via mail.
“Ultimately our goal is the safety of our customers and the safety of our employees. Our office is based on what’s going on at the county level. They’re going to be in different operating statuses, so I make your first contact to us by phone,” De Jong says.
Signup for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, or CFAP 2 begins on Monday and runs through December 11. For more information, visit farmers.gov/cfap.
