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FSA recently mailed 303,000 pre-filled applications for the Emergency Relief Program (ERP), a new program designed to help agricultural producers impacted by wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, winter storms, and other qualifying natural disasters experienced during calendar years 2020 and 2021. The past few years have been tough to say the least. As producers have dealt with the After extensive stakeholder outreach, FSA began work developing a responsive, easier-to-access program that could be rolled out in phases. FSA is now rolling out the first phase of ERP, which uses existing Federal Crop Insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) data as the basis for calculating initial payments. By leveraging existing data, FSA will be able to deliver approximately $6 billion in assistance on a faster timeline; at the same time, ensuring that producers who do not have existing data on file with USDA are captured in the second phase of ERP, which will be explicitly focused on filling gaps in previously implemented emergency assistance.
To apply for ERP Phase 1, here’s what you need to do:
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Check Your Mailbox; The form being mailed, includes eligibility requirements, outlines the application process, and provides estimated ERP payment calculations. Producers will receive a separate application form for each program year in which an eligible loss occurred. Receipt of a pre-filled application is not confirmation that a producer is eligible to receive an ERP phase one payment. This application takes less than 15 minutes for producers to complete. The deadline to return completed ERP applications to FSA is Friday, July 22, 2022. If producers have NAP coverage, then those producers will receive pre-filled ERP applications later this summer. Details on ERP Phase 2 will be forthcoming as well.
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Check Your Eligibility; ERP covers losses to crops, trees, bushes, and vines due to a qualifying natural disaster event in calendar years 2020 and 2021. Eligible crops include all crops for which crop insurance or NAP coverage was available, except for crops intended for grazing. Qualifying natural disaster events include wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought*, and related conditions. *Lists of 2020 and 2021 drought counties eligible for ERP are available online.
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Check Required Forms on File with FSA, Producers must have the following forms on file with FSA: • Form AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet. • Form CCC-902, Farm Operating Plan for an individual or legal entity. • Form CCC-901, Member Information for Legal Entities (if applicable). • Form FSA-510, Request for an Exception to the $125,000 Payment Limitation for Certain Programs (if applicable). • A highly erodible land conservation (sometimes referred to as HELC) and wetland conservation certification (Form AD-1026 Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland Conservation (WC) Certification) for the ERP producer and applicable affiliates. If you have previously participated in FSA programs, you will likely have these required forms on file. However, if you’re uncertain or want to confirm the status of your forms, contact the Seneca County FSA office.
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Check Historically Underserved Status with FSA, If Applicable The ERP payment percentage for historically underserved producers, including beginning, limited resource, socially disadvantaged, and veteran farmers, and ranchers will be increased by 15% of the calculated ERP payment. To qualify for the higher payment percentage, eligible producers must have the following form on file with FSA: •Form CCC-860,Socially Disadvantaged, Limited Resource, Beginning and Veteran Farmer or Rancher Certification.
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Check Your Future Insurance Coverage; All producers who receive ERP phase one payments are statutorily required to purchase crop insurance, or NAP coverage where crop insurance is not available, for the next two available crop years, as determined by the Secretary. Coverage requirements will be determined from the date a producer receives an ERP payment and may vary depending on the timing and availability of crop insurance or NAP for a producer’s particular crops. The final crop year to purchase crop insurance or NAP coverage to meet the second year of coverage for this requirement is the 2026 crop year.
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Check Your bank; Once the completed ERP application for payment is submitted to and signed by FSA producers who have direct deposit should look for payment within three business days.
Producers should contact the Seneca County FSA office at 419-447-7071, extension 2, if you have any questions.
When bad weather prevents planting or damages crops, FSA would like to remind producers to report the acreage to the FSA office within 15 days of the final planting date of the crop. This applies to all crops, whether covered by crop insurance, not covered by insurance, or covered by FSA's Non-insured Assistance Program (NAP). Final planting dates vary among counties and crop types.
Producers who have their crops insured through a private crop insurance company should contact the insurance agent immediately and advise them of the damaged crops. Additionally, a CCC-576, Notice of Loss Application, must be completed in person at the FSA office, and the prevented and/or failed acres reported.
For those crops covered under FSA's NAP, producers should immediately contact the FSA office to report the acres and file a CCC-576, Notice of Loss Application. Producers with NAP coverage should report their losses within 15 calendar days of crop damage from natural disaster. Producers of hand-harvested crops and certain perishable crops must notify FSA within 72 hours of when a loss becomes apparent, so the loss can be appraised, and production counted before the crop is put into another use, abandoned or destroyed.
Crops not covered with a private insurance or NAP policy should still be reported to the local FSA office. This will provide FSA with a historical record of your crop should disaster assistance become available.
For more information about reporting prevented planting or failed acres, contact or stop in the FSA office.
A new USDA report shows use of no-till, crop rotations, more efficient irrigation methods and advanced technologies have climbed in recent years. The report from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) demonstrates progress made through voluntary conservation over a 10-year period. Findings from the report will inform future conservation strategies, including USDA’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
The “Conservation Practices on Cultivated Cropland: A Comparison of CEAP I and CEAP II Survey Data and Modeling” was developed by USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). It found significant gains for soil health and soil carbon storage, while also identifying areas where additional and targeted nutrient management strategies are needed.
Key findings include:
- Farmers increasingly adopted advanced technology, including enhanced-efficiency fertilizers and variable rate fertilization to improve efficiency, assist agricultural economies and benefit the environment.
- More efficient conservation tillage systems, particularly no-till, became the dominant form of tillage, improving soil health and reducing fuel use.
- Use of structural practices increased, largely in combination with conservation tillage as farmers increasingly integrated conservation treatments to gain efficiencies. Structural practices include terraces, filter and buffer strips, grassed waterways and field borders.
- Irrigation expanded in more humid areas, and as irrigators shifted to more efficient systems and improved water management strategies, per-acre water application rates decreased by 19% and withdrawals by 7 million-acre-feet.
- Nearly 70% of cultivated cropland had conservation crop rotations, and 28% had high-biomass conservation crop rotations.
Because of this increased conservation, the report estimates:
- Average annual water (sheet and rill) and wind erosion dropped by 70 million and 94 million tons, respectively, and edge-of-field sediment loss declined by 74 million tons.
- Nearly 26 million additional acres of cultivated cropland were gaining soil carbon, and carbon gains on all cultivated cropland increased by over 8.8 million tons per year.
- Nitrogen and phosphorus losses through surface runoff declined by 3% and 6%, respectively.
- Average annual fuel use dropped by 110 million gallons of diesel fuel equivalents, avoiding associated greenhouse gas emissions of nearly 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents.
About the Report
For this report, farmer survey data was collected from 2003-2006 and again from 2013-2016. NRCS evaluates conservation practice adoption through the CEAP Cropland Assessment, using a combination of farmer surveys, land use and soils information, along with resource models. CEAP project findings are used to guide USDA conservation policy and program development, along with assisting conservationists, farmers and ranchers and other land stewards with making sound and science-based conservation decisions.
Download the full report or a four-page summary of findings.
Next Steps
The report also revealed that cropping patterns have changed over the years in response to climate, policy, trade, renewable energy and prices, presenting a nutrient management challenge. Improving the timing and application method of nutrients can allow production demands to be met while reducing the impacts of crop production on the environment. NRCS plans to continue its focus on nutrient management conservation practices and strategies with vigorous outreach efforts to farmers and further engagement with partner groups to adjust to these changing trends.
For more information on CEAP, visit the CEAP webpage or view this multimedia story.
Low-Interest Loans Can Help Producers Start or Expand Farms
The Seneca County Farm Service Agency (FSA) reminds anyone interested that there is funding available for eligible farmers for low interest loans through FSA’s direct farm ownership program.
Eligible producers can borrow up to $600,000 in direct farm ownership loans to buy or enlarge a farm, construct new farm buildings or improve structures, pay closing costs, or promote soil and water conservation and protection. The interest rate on select loans can be as low as 1.5 percent with up to 40 years to repay.
New and beginning farmers, military veterans, and underserved farmers also are encouraged to apply. Each year Congress targets 80 percent of available loan funds to beginning and targeted underserved farmers and producers. Targeted underserved groups include American Indians or Alaskan Natives, Asians, Blacks or African Americans, Native Hawaiians, or other Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and women.
To find out more about the FSA direct farm loan program or other loans available, contact The Seneca County FSA office at 419-447-7071 to setup an appointment with a Loan Approval Official.
Mar 1 ----- Primary Nesting Season continues. Ends July 15th.
July 15 --- End of primary nesting season for CRP program purposes.
July 15 --- Final certification date to report burley tobacco; cabbage planted through May 31; corn, grain sorghum, hybrid corn seed, spring oats, potatoes, popcorn, sugar beets, tomatoes and other crops. Report perennial forage crops. Report Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage.
July 15 --- Final Date to Report Production for the preceding Crop Year for Farms Enrolled in ARC-IC.
July 22 --- FSA deadline for producers to complete paperwork for the Emergency Relief Program.
August 1 - Last day to file County Committee Nomination forms.
August 1 - Deadline to Request farm reconstitutions and transfers for 2022.
August 5 - Deadline for producers to request re-enrollment of Continuous Signup contracts or enrollment into TIP.
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