USDA will begin issuing final Emergency Relief Program (ERP) payments totaling approximately $306 million to eligible commodity and specialty crop producers who incurred losses due to natural disasters in 2020 and 2021. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) will begin issuing these additional payments to eligible producers this week.
Recipients of the additional payment are limited to those producers who received ERP Phase 1 payments from FSA that were calculated based on crop insurance indemnities. Initially, ERP Phase 1 payments to producers who were indemnified through federal crop insurance, were subject to a 75% payment factor. FSA has since determined adequate funding exists to provide an additional 3.5% ERP Phase 1 payment to producers who had crop insurance increasing the overall payment factor to 78.5%. These additional ERP Phase 1 payments are subject to FSA payment limitations.
Because ERP Phase 1 payments to producers of noninsured crops covered by FSA NAP policies were originally paid at 100%, there will be no additional payments issued to these producers for 2020 and 2021 losses.
