If you’re an ag producer who’s lost revenue, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency has two programs that might help.
Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program — or PARP — is for current and non-FSA customers who file Schedule F or a similar schedule related to ag revenue.
Emergency Relief Program Phase 2 is a new program. It helps producers impacted by a loss of revenue from hay or sales crops related to a qualifying disaster during 2020 and 2021.
The critical component of each program is revenue loss. That’s unlike a lot of traditional FSA programs that focus on production losses related to grass or crop acres, bushels, or tons or head of livestock.
The deadline to apply for both programs is June 2, 2023. You can get complete details on the FSA’s website.
Producers who want to apply for PARP must have been in business for at least part of the 2020 calendar year. They’ll also have to have suffered a 15% or greater loss in allowable gross revenue — from crop or hay sales, livestock sales, and certain farm programs — for the 2020 calendar year compared to 2018 or 2019. There are several other eligibility requirements — including income limits — so make sure to check those out on the FSA’s website.
For the ERP Phase 2, qualifying disasters include “wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought, and related conditions.” And like PARP, there are a lot of eligibility requirements, so make sure you qualify before applying.
Producers probably won’t start seeing payments until closer to this fall. After the June 2 deadline, FSA’s national office will set the payment rate based on the number of applications they received.
If you have questions about FSA or other ag relief programs, please reach out to us. Since we’re currently in the home stretch of tax season, we plan to begin helping clients with the CPA-required portion of their applications in May.