Colleen Cashell, county executive director of USDA's Farm Service Agency in Washington County announced that eligible farmers who suffered losses of quantity of their crops due to natural disaster weather-related events in 2005 or 2006 or on crops planted before Feb. 28, 2007, can enroll in the Crop Disaster Program 2005-2007 at local FSA service centers.
FSA will announce and conduct sign-up for quality losses under CDP as soon as possible. FSA offices may accept information from producers about quality losses when producers submit applications for quantity losses. However, FSA will only consider quality loss applications complete after FSA announces the quality loss sign-up date. FSA will not consider applications completed for any loss, including quantity losses, until a final rule has been issued for this program.
Only producers who obtained crop insurance coverage or coverage under the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program for the year of loss will be eligible for CDP benefits. Producers must have suffered quantity losses in excess of 35 percent to be eligible for CDP. The payment rate is set at 42 percent of the established price. Assistance, together with any crop insurance or NAP payment received for the same crop and including the value of the crop production not lost, must not exceed 95 percent of the total value of the crop absent the disaster. Producers who incurred qualifying losses in 2005, 2006 or 2007 must choose only one year to receive benefits. Producers may apply for benefits for losses to multiple crops as long as the losses occurred in the same crop year.
