You asked about programs to provide assistance to farmers in the event of a natural disaster. This report is as comprehensive as possible given the timeframe of your request.

SUMMARY

The federal government administers most farmer financial assistance programs. The U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is the lead agency. County FSAs administer the programs at the local level. However, the federal Small Business Administration also administers a disaster loan program for agricultural cooperatives. The Connecticut Development Authority appears to be the leading state agency providing this assistance. It is authorized to provide financial aid to businesses, including farms, affected by natural disasters through its Comprehensive Business Assistance Fund. The state labor department helps dislocated workers, including farmers and fishermen unemployed because of a natural disaster.

FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA) PROGRAMS

FSA administers a number of financial assistance programs that assist farmers when natural disasters occur.

Federal Catastrophic Crop Insurance Risk Protection Levels

This program is designed to protect farmers from unavoidable risks associated with adverse weather, weather-related plant diseases, and insect infestations. They can receive catastrophic coverage without paying a premium. This coverage provides them a payment of 55% of the estimated market price on crop losses of more than 50% of normal yield They must pay a $ 100 per crop administrative fee for each county in which they grow the crop. Producers can also buy additional insurance. More information on this program can be found here.

Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance

This program provides financial assistance to landowners, tenants or sharecroppers who share the risk of producing noninsurable crops when a natural disaster prevents planting or causes a low yield or a loss of inventory. Eligible crops are those grown commercially for food or fiber that are not eligible for the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance. They include mushrooms, Christmas trees, flowers and ornamental nursery products, sod, and aquaculture. (Trees grown for wood, paper, or pulp products are not eligible for this program. )

In order to receive payment under this program, a producer must experience at least a 50% crop loss caused by a natural disaster, or be prevented from planting more than 35% of the intended acreage. A producer may receive 55% of the average market price for the covered commodity up to a maximum of $ 100,000 per person. A producer is ineligible for payment if his qualifying gross revenues exceed $ 2 million.

As with catastrophic crop insurance, applicants pay a $ 100 per crop service fee at the time of application. Closing dates for applications vary by crop, but are generally about 30 days before the final planting date for annual crops. Eligible natural disasters include damaging weather, such as drought; excessive freeze or heat, rain, or hurricanes; floods; earthquakes; disease; and insect infestation. The natural disaster must occur before or during harvest and must directly affect the eligible crop.

Emergency Disaster Loan Assistance

Producers in counties the President or agriculture secretary declare disaster areas due to drought, flooding, other natural disasters or quarantine are eligible for low-interest emergency disaster loans, as are producers in counties that are contiguous to such counties.

Farmers, ranchers and aquaculture producers may use the loans to help recover from production or physical losses. Loans can be used to restore or replace essential property; pay all or part of production costs associated with the disaster year; pay essential family living expenses; reorganize the farming operation; and refinance certain debts. Eligible applicants can borrow up to 100% of actual losses (up to $ 500,000) at a below-market interest rate (3. 75% in the summer of 2005).

Besides owning or operating on land located in the declared disaster or contiguous county, a producer must: (1) be a U. S. citizen or permanent resident and an established family farmer; (2) have suffered at least a 30% loss in crop production or a loss of livestock, livestock products, real estate or chattel property; (3) provide collateral, have an acceptable credit record and have the ability to repay; and (4) be unable to receive credit from commercial sources.

Applications must be received within eight months of the county’s disaster designation date. Loans for non-real estate losses must generally be repaid within one to seven years; loans for physical losses to real estate must generally be repaid within 20 years. The repayment deadline can be extended in special circumstances for an additional 20 years in the first case and 40 years in the second.

Borrowers must keep acceptable farm records; must operate according to farm plan they develop and agree to with FSA staff; and may be required to participate in a financial management training program and obtain crop insurance. More information on this program is available here.

Emergency Conservation Program

This program provides funding and technical assistance for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disaster and for carrying out emergency water conservation measures in periods of severe drought. Although permanently authorized by Congress, almost all of its recent funding has come from emergency supplemental appropriations.

For land to be eligible the natural disaster must create new conservation problems that, if untreated, would impair or endanger the land; materially affect the land’s productive capacity; represent unusual damage which, except for wind erosion, is not the type likely to recur frequently in the same area; and be so costly to repair that federal assistance is or will be required to return the land to productive agricultural use. Conservation problems existing before the disaster are not eligible.

Program participants receive up to 75% of the cost of implementing approved emergency conservation measures. The money can be used for such tasks as removing debris, restoring fences and other structures, and providing water for livestock.

FSA APPLICATION PROCESS

Applications for emergency assistance should be made to FSA county offices, which help administer farm programs at the local level. More information on Connecticut’s eight county offices is available here.

EMERGENCY USDA PROGRAMS

Congress frequently supplements the above disaster programs with additional emergency aid. The most recent such program was the 2005 Military Construction Appropriations Act (P. L. 108-324). We have attached information on these programs, some of which supplement those listed above.

U. S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DISASTER LOANS

Small businesses and agricultural cooperatives that have suffered substantial economic injury because of a physical disaster or an agricultural production disaster designated by the agriculture secretary may qualify for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Loans of up to $ 1. 5 million are made to businesses unable to obtain credit elsewhere. More information is available online here.

CONNECTICUT DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

The CDA has the authority to provide financial aid to businesses, including farms, affected by natural disasters and economic emergencies, such as existing or threatened major plant shutdowns or business disruptions from a major road or bridge repair project, through the Comprehensive Business Assistance Fund (CGS § 32-23x).

CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

The state labor department provides assistance to dislocated workers, including self-employed farmers or fishermen, who are unemployed because of economic conditions or a natural disaster (CGS § 31-11l). The department helps dislocated workers learn about unemployment benefits, job search assistance and training opportunities, among other things.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We have attached the “Farmers’ Guide to Disaster Assistance” and “Disaster Assistance for Farmers Affected by Hurricane Katrina,” both prepared by the Farmer’s Legal Action Group, Inc. We also have attached “Agricultural Disaster Assistance,” an August 29, 2005 Congressional Research Service report.

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