USDA Offers Disaster Recovery Assistance to Agricultural Producers in Texas Impacted by Recent Flooding

Contact: FPAC.BC.Press@usda.gov!.?.! TEMPLE/COLLEGE STATION,

Texas, May 28, 2024 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has technical and financial help readily available to assist farmers and animals producers throughout Texas recuperate from current flooding. Impacted producers need to call their regional USDA Service Center to report losses and find out more about program alternatives offered to assist in their recovery from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses and damages.

USDA Disaster Recovery Assistance

Producers who experience animals deaths in excess of typical mortality might be qualified for the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). To take part in LIP, producers will need to supply acceptable paperwork of death losses resulting from a qualified negative weather occasion and must send a notification of loss to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) no behind the yearly program payment application date, which is 60 calendar days following the calendar year in which the loss took place. The LIP payment application and notice of loss deadline is March 3, 2025, for 2024 calendar year losses.

Meanwhile, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) provides eligible manufacturers with settlement for feed and grazing losses. For ELAP, manufacturers are needed to finish a notification of loss and a payment application to their regional FSA office no later on than Jan. 30, 2025, for 2024 calendar year losses.

Additionally, qualified orchardists, vintners and nursery tree growers might be eligible for cost-share assistance through the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) to replant or fix up qualified trees, bushes or vines. TAP matches the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) or crop insurance coverage, which covers the crop but not the plants or trees in all cases. For TAP, a program application need to be filed within 90 days of the disaster occasion or the date when the loss of the trees, bushes or vines is obvious.

"Staff at your local FSA county workplace will connect you with the programs finest suited to meet your requirements based on your reported losses or damages," stated Kelly Adkins, State Executive Director for FSA in Texas. "To assist us help you, please be prepared to supply files, such as farm records, herd inventory, invoices and photos of damages or losses, and report damages and losses as quickly as you are able to evaluate catastrophe impacts on your operation."

FSA also provides a variety of direct and guaranteed farm loans, including operating and emergency situation farm loans, to manufacturers not able to protect commercial funding. Depending on program funding schedule, manufacturers in counties with a main or adjoining catastrophe designation may be qualified for low-interest emergency situation loans to help them recuperate from production and physical losses. Loans can help producers change essential residential or commercial property, purchase inputs like livestock, equipment, feed and seed, cover household living expenses or refinance farm-related debts and other needs. Additionally, FSA provides a number of loan maintenance alternatives readily available for debtors who are not able to make scheduled payments on their farm loan programs debt to the agency since of factors beyond their control.

Producers who have risk security through federal crop insurance or FSA's NAP should report crop damage to their crop insurance coverage agent or FSA workplace, respectively. If they have crop insurance, producers need to provide a notice of loss to their representative within 72 hours of initial discovery of damage and follow up in writing within 15 days.

For NAP covered crops, a Notification of Loss (CCC-576) form should be submitted within 15 days of the loss emerging, except for hand-harvested crops, which must be reported within 72 hours.
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"Because there is constantly the possibility of losses from floods and other natural catastrophes, USDA provides crop insurance and danger management to assist manufacturers mitigate the monetary impact of losses arising from disaster occasions, like these, that are beyond their control," said James Bellmon, Director of RMA's Regional Office that covers Texas. "Our representatives, loss adjusters, and Approved Insurance Providers are prepared to support you through the challenging catastrophe healing process."

FSA's Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) can help landowners with financial and technical assistance to eliminate debris from farmland such as woody material, sand, rock and materials from collapsed hoop houses/high tunnels on cropland or pastureland. Through the program, FSA can offer assistance towards the repair or replacement of fences including livestock cross fences, boundary fences, cattle gates or wildlife exemption fences on agricultural land.

USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is constantly offered to supply technical support throughout the recovery process by assisting producers to plan and implement preservation practices on farms, cattle ranches and working forests impacted by natural catastrophes. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) can help producers plan and implement preservation practices on land affected by natural disasters.
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NRCS likewise administers the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program, which provides assistance to city government sponsors with the cost of dealing with watershed impairments or risks such as particles removal and streambank stabilization. The EWP Program is a recovery effort targeted at relieving impending dangers to life and residential or commercial property brought on by floods, fires, windstorms and other natural catastrophes. All jobs must have a qualified project sponsor. NRCS might bear up to 75% of the eligible building expense of emergency situation procedures (90% within county-wide limited-resource areas as recognized by the U.S. Census data). The remaining expenses should come from local sources and can be in the kind of cash or .

EWP is designed for setup of recovery procedures to secure life and residential or commercial property as an outcome of a natural disaster. Threats that the EWP Program addresses are called watershed impairments. These consist of, however are not restricted to:

- Debris-clogged waterways.

• Unstable streambanks.
• Severe erosion threatening public infrastructure.
• Wind-borne particles elimination.
  
  Eligible sponsors include cities, counties, towns or any federally recognized Native American people or tribal organizations. Sponsors need to be able to supply the local building share, acquire permits and website access and accept perform operations and upkeep of the built tasks. Willing sponsors must send an official demand (by mail or email) to the state conservationist for help within 60 days of the natural catastrophe occurrence or 60 days from the date when access to the sites end up being available. For more details, prospective sponsors ought to contact their local NRCS workplace.
  
  "NRCS can be a very valuable partner to assist communities with their healing efforts," said Kristy Oates, NRCS State Conservationist in Texas. "Emergency Watershed Protection helps secure communities from additional damage and risks to life and residential or commercial property brought on by the results of flooding in watersheds. We can deal with a regional sponsor to assist cover the costs of particles removal and other disaster mitigation. Our personnel will deal with neighborhoods to make evaluations of the damages and develop methods that concentrate on efficient recovery of the land."
  
  Additional USDA catastrophe help information can be discovered on farmers.gov, consisting of USDA resources particularly for manufacturers affected by flooding. Those resources consist of the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster-at-a-Glance fact sheet and Loan Assistance Tool. For FSA and NRCS programs, producers ought to call their local USDA Service Center. For help with a crop insurance claim, producers and landowners should contact their crop insurance agent.
  
  USDA touches the lives of all Americans every day in a lot of favorable ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is changing America's food system with a greater focus on more resilient regional and local food production, fairer markets for all manufacturers, guaranteeing access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historical financial investments in facilities and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by getting rid of systemic barriers and constructing a labor force more representative of America. To get more information, check out www.usda.gov.