Producers who suffered crop losses for 2010 may begin applying for disaster assistance at the Cleburne County FSA Office through the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) Program beginning November 14, 2011 through June 1, 2012. The SURE program will help provide financial assistance to producers who have suffered crop losses due to a natural disaster. The SURE Program has many components. One of the most important aspects of the program is all land the producer farms nationwide is used to determine if a payment can be earned. This land is identified as a producer’s “farm.” To qualify for a payment several criteria must be met. The first three basic elements/triggers are as follows:
- A producer must have insured all crops that he/she farms nationwide that are of economic significance with a plan of insurance with Federal Crop Insurance or with FSA’s Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program (NAP). This requirement is known as the Risk Management Purchase Requirement (RMPR). Producers who are considered socially disadvantaged, a beginning farmer or rancher, or a limited resource farmer may be eligible for SURE without a policy or plan of insurance or NAP coverage.
- A producer must have suffered at least a 10 percent production loss on the “farm,” as a result of a natural disaster on at least one crop of economic significance.
- The producer must have a farming interest physically located in a county that was declared a primary disaster county, or contiguous county by the Agriculture Secretary under a Secretarial Disaster Designation. For 2010 all counties inArkansasmeet these criteria. However, if there is no disaster declaration, an individual producer may be eligible for SURE if the actual production on the farm is less than 50 percent of normal production due to a disaster.
Once the three triggers described above are met, then the program can cover quality and economic losses. The SURE program provides assistance in an amount equal to 60 percent of the difference between the SURE farm guarantee and the total farm revenue. The farm guarantee is based on the amount of crop insurance and NAP coverage on the farm. Total farm revenue takes into account the
actual value of production on the farm as well as insurance indemnities, and certain farm program payments. The application process is unique for the SURE Program given that an application must account for all land in all counties farmed by the producer. Producer’s who have farming interests in more than one county will ultimately sign their application in the county FSA has noted as their payment limitation control county. However, before signing the application, all land from all counties must be processed by each respective administrative county, or by the control county.
A producer should call the Cleburne County FSA Office to start the process. Many items that are needed for the program are already a matter of record with, but they will need to be verified with theCountyOffice. Some of the information that FSA will NOT have includes, but is not limited to:
- production evidence if a notice of loss was not filed with federal crop insurance or FSA/NAP
- Value of settlements obtained from Federal Crop Insurance or FSA
- AD-1026, CCC-902, CCC-931 if there was no other program participation for 2010.
Producers should bring this information with them to the Cleburne County FSA Office to speed up the application process. Due to the many components of the SURE Program, it will take a considerable amount of time to process each application.
