November 6, 2019

USDA to disburse natural disaster payouts for grain stored on-farm

US farmers who lost grain stored in bins due to natural disasters may be eligible for payments made by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Nebraska announced payments are now available, for farmers who lost commodities stored on-farm in natural disasters in 2018 or 2019.

The On-Farm Storage Loss Program (OFSLP) was included in the Disaster Relief Act of 2019.

FSA is overseeing the programme, which provides payments to eligible producers in impacted counties who suffered uncompensated losses of harvested commodities including grains, oilseeds and hay stored in on-farm structures.

For producers to receive payment, the losses must be directly related to an eligible disaster event such as floods, tornadoes, snowstorms and wildfires that occurred during 2018 and/or 2019.

"There are producers throughout the country who had their on-farm storage structures damaged or destroyed by natural disasters during 2018 and 2019," said FSA State Executive Director Nancy Johner. "This disaster recovery programme pays eligible producers who lost their on-farm stored commodities. We encourage producers who suffered a loss to contact their county FSA office for programme information and application."

Under the programme, grain must be stored in structures on the farm, not used for commercial storage, that would have normally maintained the quality of the grain.

Commodities stored in warehouses are not covered under this programme, and the OFSLP payments do not cover the loss of the structure, only the commodities inside.

Eligible commodities include barley, canola, chickpeas (large and small), corn, cotton, crambe, dry peas, flaxseed, grain sorghum, hay (alfalfa and all-hay), lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, rapeseed, rice, safflower seed, sesame seed, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.

FSA uses a national payment rate per commodity, which is based on market or harvest prices. Payments will be calculated using a 75% factored FSA payment rate multiplied by the quantity lost while stored.

There's a payment limit of US$125,000 per entity.

- NTV News