USDA announced updates and additions to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 (CFAP 2), with the biggest revisions occurring for contract producers of pork, poultry and other eligible livestock, as well as specialty crop producers who grow on a contract basis. Grass seed growers were also added as eligible for the CFAP2 program.
The agency set a deadline of October 12 for producers to sign up or make modifications to existing applications.
Below are highlights from Pro Farmer Washington Correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer.
Contract grower aid: CFAP 2 payments for eligible contract producers of broilers, pullets, layers, chicken eggs, turkeys, and hogs and pigs, with ducks, geese, pheasants and quail produced under contract also eligible commodities, along with breeding stock of eligible livestock and eggs of all eligible poultry types raised by contract producers.
Contract grower payments were originally to be based on a comparison of eligible revenue for the periods of Jan. 1-Dec. 27, 2019, and Jan. 1-Dec. 27, 2020. With the changes, contract producers can now use eligible revenue from the period of Jan. 1-Dec. 27, 2018, instead of the 2019 date range “if it is more representative,” USDA said.
USDA said the shift is aimed at making the program more flexible and equitable for contract growers who had reduced revenue in 2019 versus a normal production year. The revenue difference will be multiplied by 80% to figure a final payment. “Payments to contract producers may be factored if total calculated payments exceed the available funding and will be made after the application period closes,” USDA said. The COVID aid plan approved included $1 billion for payments to contract growers.
USDA also announced additional flexibilities for those that increased the size of their operation in 2020 and did not have a full period of revenue for the Jan. 1-Dec. 27 period in either 2018 or 2019. USDA said that assistance is also now available to new contract producers who began their farming operation in 2020.
Changes for sales-based commodities: USDA is amending the CFAP 2 payment calculation for sales-based commodities — primarily specialty crops — to allow producers to substitute 2018 sales for 2019 sales. Previously, payments for sales-based commodities were based only on 2019 sales, with 2019 used as an approximation of the amount the producer would have expected to market in 2020. Producers can now use 2018 sales for this approximation, including 2018 crop insurance indemnities and 2018 crop year Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) and Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+) payments.
