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Courtesy of NAA:

The Agricultural Act of 2014, commonly referred to as the 2014 Farm Bill, has amended certain provisions within disaster assistance programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA): Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish (ELAP).  The NAP and ELAP programs are part of the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) which provides financial assistance to producers of noninsurable crops to protect against natural disasters that result in lower yields, crop losses or prevents crop planting.

For NAP, producers now have the opportunity to purchase additional levels of coverage which is very similar to crop insurance.  In addition, there have been several discretionary changes aimed at increasing the integrity of NAP.  One of those changes is that producers must notify their FSA office within 72 hours of a disaster event if they feel there was a loss (again very similar to crop insurance).

For ELAP, the only change for 2015 and forward, is that producers must notify their FSA office within 30 calendar days of when the loss is apparent to the participant unless the date November 1 would be less than the 30 days, in that case November 1, becomes a hard deadline each year.

“These new protections will help ensure that farm families growing crops for food, fiber or livestock consumption will be better able to withstand losses due to natural disasters,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. “For years, commodity crop farmers have had the ability to purchase insurance to keep their crops protected, and it only makes sense that fruit and vegetable, and other specialty crop growers, should be able to purchase similar levels of protection. Ensuring these farmers can adequately protect themselves from factors beyond their control is also critical for consumers who enjoy these products and for communities whose economies depend on them.”

Additional information about NAP, ELAP and contact information for your local FSA office can be acquired at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/.