It’s the largest portion of the $21 billion in disaster aid approved by Congress at the end of 2024. And this week, USDA announced farmers will be able to start signing up for $16 billion in disaster aid payments starting this week through the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP).
The disaster aid was approved by Congress as part of the continuing resolution in December. On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced producers who suffered eligible crop losses due to natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can start applying for the $16 billion in assistance starting July 10. This is in addition to the $1 billion in livestock disaster aid already announced by USDA.
USDA says in order to expedite the process, its Farm Service Agency (FSA) will deliver the assistance in two stages.
- Stage One: This is open to producers with eligible crop losses that received assistance under crop insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program (NAP) during 2023 and 2024. USDA says those sign-ups will start in person at local FSA offices July 10. Prefilled applications are also being mailed to producers starting today.
- Stage Two: Those sign-ups that apply to eligible shallow or uncovered losses will begin in early fall.
USDA says FSA is launching a streamlined, prefilled application process for eligible crop, tree and vine losses by leveraging existing NAP and Risk Management Agency indemnified loss data. The prefilled applications, which is part of stage one, is what is being mailed now.
“American farmers are no stranger to natural disasters that cause losses that leave no region or crop unscathed. Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA has worked around the clock to deliver this relief directly to our farmers,” said Secretary Rollins in a statement. “We are taking swift action to ensure farmers will have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest, most reliable and most abundant food supply in the world.”
Who’s Eligible?
Under the latest program, producers who suffered losses due to natural disasters in the 2023 and/or 2024 years are eligible. The disasters include wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought and related conditions.
When it comes to drought, USDA says the producer’s county must have been rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having a D2 (severe drought) for eight consecutive weeks, D3 (extreme drought) or greater intensity level during the applicable calendar year.
What’s Next?
Once those payments are released, USDA’s final phase of the American Relief Act will be another emergency livestock relief program, but this covers flood losses producers saw in 2023 and 2024.
Appleton says that’s been the most difficult program to outline and detail, as USDA has never administered a disaster program for livestock that covered losses due to flooding.
“We’ve never had a disaster program for livestock that was triggered on flooding, so that piece of it is going to take us a little bit longer,” USDA deputy undersecretary Brooke Appleton told Farm Journal last month. “As these programs are ready to roll out, we’re focused on doing it as soon as we can, rather than holding them all and doing it all at once. We want to make sure as soon is the assistance is ready to go, we are getting it out and getting it to the folks who need it.”
USDA says it is fully committed to expediting remaining disaster assistance provided by the American Relief Act 2025. On May 7, it launched its 2023/2024 Supplemental Disaster Assistance public landing page where the status of USDA disaster assistance and block grant roll out timeline can be tracked.
