Resources for Victims of the Freeze
Local Assistance
Resources for farmers and ranchers regarding the severe freeze that hit California in mid-January. Click here to read more about the Freeze losses.
Emergency loans for physical and production losses.
Application deadline ends December 20, 2007
Emergency Farm Loan Eligibility Requirements.
USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides emergency loans to help producers recover from production and physical losses due to the freeze.
Contact Pat Miller at the Santa Maria Farm Service Agency, 928-9269 Ext. 2.
Report any losses
Reports can be filed with the County Agriculture Commissioner’s Office by calling Laura at (805) 781-5917. The County Agriculture Commissioner’s Office is collecting information on all agriculture losses.
Be sure to take pictures and keep any receipts associated with the repair of damage caused by the freeze and contact the USDA Farm Service Agency of San Luis Obispo for more information on ways to mitigate losses and apply for grants. The Farm Service Agency can be reached at (805) 434-0398 extension 2. Funding should be available in September or October.
Insure your Crop for Future Years
USDA's Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) provides financial assistance to producers of noninsurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory or prevented planting occurs due to natural disasters. An eligible producer is a landowner, tenant or sharecropper who shares in the risk of producing an eligible crop. To be eligible for NAP assistance, crops must be noninsurable crops and agricultural commodities for which the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance is not available, and must be any of the following commercially produced crops:
- crops grown for food or fiber (except trees)
- crops planted and grown for livestock consumption, including, but not limited to, grain and forage crops, including native forage;
- crops grown under a controlled environment, such as mushrooms and floriculture;
- specialty crops, such as honey and maple sap;
- value loss crops, such as aquaculture, Christmas trees, ginseng, ornamental nursery and turfgrass sod;
- sea oats and sea grass; and
- seed crops where the propagation stock is produced for sale as seed stock for other eligible NAP crop production
Questions and Answers about Disaster Relief
Q: When can we expect payments?
A: It will take five or six months for USDA to write regulations based on the nuances of the legislation, change the software program and train staff. I n past disaster bills, it typically has taken five to seven months before the First checks are issued.
Q: Can a producer declare a one crop in 2005 and a different crop in 2006?
A: No. The provisions state that the farmer must elect one crop year and shall not receive assistance for more than one crop year.
Q: How much loss qualifies as a disaster?
A: Crop farmers must show at least a 35 percent crop loss to receive payments.
Q: What is the price or payment rate?
A: USDA uses the five-year Olympic price from the National Agricultural Statistics Services. That's an average price of a commodity from 2001 to 2005, with the high and low average prices taken out of the equation. Unlike prior disaster packages, however, the payment rate is set at 42 percent of the established price, not 65 percent.
Q: What's the limit a producer can receive?
A: Payments would cover up to 95 percent of what the value of a crop would have been without the disaster losses. That cap would include any crop insurance payment a producer received, as well as the value of the crop that was sold.
Q: Can you collect a disaster payment if you did not have crop insurance?
A: No. The legislation specifically states that farmers who did not buy crop insurance for eligible commodities are not eligible for payments. For non-insurable commodities, the farmer must have filed the required paperwork and pay the administration fee by the state filing deadline under non-insurable commodities.
Q: What does it say about livestock?
A: Livestock producers who suffered losses from 2005 through Feb. 28, 2007, are eligible, including the late December blizzard that carried into this year. Indemnity payments would be at least 26 percent of the market value of livestock deaths, based on the price the day before the date of death. Producers are eligible in counties declared natural disaster areas and in contiguous counties.
Other provisions in the legislation also set up a series of funds, including: Conservation: $16 million to help clean up or restore farmland hit by disaster declarations. Dairy Losses: $16 million is appropriated for dairy producers for lost dairy production in disaster counties. Low-income farm workers: $16 million is set aside to help low-income or seasonal farm workers.
Important Dates
NAP 2007 Application Closing Dates
Where to find help online
California Office of Emergency Services freeze assistance page
USDA Farm Service Agency freeze assistance fact sheet (PDF)
Utility relief programs:
Pacific Gas & Electric
California Public Utilities Commission
Where to find information
Crop loss estimates by county (PDF, 27 KB)
Freeze disaster prompts call for immediate help (Ag Alert, 1/31/07)
Farm Bureau donates to freeze-relief telethon (News release, 1/24/07) (PDF, 35 KB)
A bitter harvest (News release, 1/19/07)
A USDA ad hoc programs could be the answer these farmers are looking for relief. The 2005 - 2007 Crop Disaster Program (CDP) programs would provide federal grant money to farmers who surpass a 35 percent loss threshold. Similar programs have aided farmers in the past when Congress has made the funds available.