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

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Texas, May 28, 2024 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has technical and monetary assistance available to assist farmers and livestock producers throughout Texas recuperate from recent flooding. Impacted producers must contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and discover more about program alternatives available to assist in their healing from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses and damages.

USDA Disaster Recovery Assistance

Producers who experience livestock deaths in excess of normal death might be eligible for the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). To get involved in LIP, manufacturers will have to offer appropriate documentation of death losses resulting from a qualified adverse weather occasion and need to send a notice of loss to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) no behind the yearly program payment application date, which is 60 calendar days following the fiscal 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 required to complete a notification of loss and a payment application to their local FSA workplace no later on than Jan. 30, 2025, for 2024 calendar year losses.

Additionally, qualified orchardists, vintners and nursery tree growers might be qualified for cost-share help through the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) to replant or rehabilitate qualified trees, bushes or vines. TAP matches the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) or crop insurance protection, which covers the crop but not the plants or trees in all cases. For TAP, a program application need to be submitted within 90 days of the catastrophe occasion or the date when the loss of the trees, bushes or vines appears.

"Staff at your local FSA county office will connect you with the programs finest suited to satisfy your needs 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 provide documents, such as farm records, herd inventory, invoices and images of damages or losses, and report damages and losses as soon as you are able to evaluate disaster effects on your operation."

FSA likewise provides a variety of direct and guaranteed farm loans, including operating and emergency situation farm loans, to manufacturers unable to secure business funding. Depending on program financing schedule, producers in counties with a main or adjoining disaster designation may be qualified for low-interest emergency loans to help them recuperate from production and physical losses. Loans can help producers change necessary residential or commercial property, purchase inputs like livestock, equipment, feed and seed, cover family living costs or re-finance farm-related debts and other requirements. Additionally, FSA uses numerous loan servicing options offered for borrowers who are not able to make scheduled payments on their farm loan programs financial obligation to the company since of reasons beyond their control.

Producers who have danger defense through federal crop insurance coverage or FSA's NAP must report crop damage to their crop insurance coverage representative or FSA office, respectively. If they have crop insurance, producers must offer a notification of loss to their representative within 72 hours of preliminary discovery of damage and follow up in writing within 15 days.

For NAP covered crops, a Notification of Loss (CCC-576) type need to be submitted within 15 days of the loss emerging, except for hand-harvested crops, which should be reported within 72 hours.

"Because there is constantly the possibility of losses from floods and other natural disasters, USDA provides crop insurance coverage and danger management to help producers reduce the financial impact of losses resulting from catastrophe occasions, like these, that are beyond their control," stated 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 tough disaster recovery process."

FSA's Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) can assist landowners with financial and technical assistance to get rid of debris from farmland such as woody product, sand, rock and products from collapsed hoop houses/high tunnels on cropland or pastureland. Through the program, FSA can offer assistance toward the repair or replacement of fences consisting of livestock cross fences, boundary fences, cattle gates or wildlife exemption fences on farming land.

USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is always offered to supply technical help during the recovery process by assisting producers to prepare and carry out preservation practices on farms, ranches and working forests impacted by natural catastrophes. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) can help producers plan and implement conservation practices on land impacted by natural disasters.

NRCS likewise administers the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program, which provides assistance to regional federal government sponsors with the expense of dealing with watershed impairments or risks such as particles elimination and streambank stabilization. The EWP Program is a recovery effort focused on easing imminent threats to life and residential or commercial property triggered by floods, fires, windstorms and other natural disasters. All jobs must have an eligible project sponsor. NRCS may bear up to 75% of the eligible construction cost of emergency situation procedures (90% within county-wide limited-resource areas as recognized by the U.S. Census information). The remaining expenses need to come from local sources and can be in the type of money or in-kind services.

EWP is developed for setup of healing procedures to secure life and residential or commercial property as a result of a natural catastrophe. Threats that the EWP Program addresses are described watershed problems. These consist of, however are not limited to:

- Debris-clogged waterways.
- Unstable streambanks.
- Severe disintegration endangering public infrastructure.
- Wind-borne debris removal.

Eligible sponsors consist of cities, counties, towns or any federally acknowledged Native American tribe or tribal companies. Sponsors should have the ability to provide the regional building and construction share, get permits and website access and consent to carry out operations and maintenance of the constructed tasks. Willing sponsors need to submit an official demand (by mail or email) to the state conservationist for assistance within 60 days of the natural disaster event or 60 days from the date when access to the sites appear. For more details, potential sponsors should contact their regional NRCS office.

"NRCS can be a very valuable partner to assist neighborhoods with their recovery efforts," stated Kristy Oates, NRCS State Conservationist in Texas. "Emergency Watershed Protection helps secure communities from further damage and threats to life and residential or commercial property triggered by the impacts of flooding in watersheds. We can deal with a regional sponsor to help cover the costs of debris removal and other disaster mitigation. Our personnel will work with communities to make assessments of the damages and establish methods that focus on effective recovery of the land."

Additional USDA disaster support details can be discovered on farmers.gov, consisting of USDA resources particularly for manufacturers impacted 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 should call their local USDA Service Center. For assistance with a crop insurance coverage claim, producers and landowners must call their crop insurance representative.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans every day in many positive methods. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America's food system with a higher focus on more durable local and local food production, fairer markets for all manufacturers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all neighborhoods, developing new markets and streams of earnings for farmers and manufacturers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historical investments in facilities and tidy energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by getting rid of systemic barriers and developing a workforce more representative of America. For more information, visit www.usda.gov.