Additional disaster assistance available to agricultural producers, including producers affected by drought and excess moisture, as well as sugar beet growers, will be available through the Wildfire & Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's program to help producers recover from losses related to 2018 and 2019 natural disasters.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) will open signup on March 23 for producers to apply for eligible losses of drought (D3 or above) and excess moisture. USDA is also entering into agreements with six sugar beet processing cooperatives to distribute $285 million to grower-members of those cooperatives who experienced losses.
In June 2019, more than $3 billion was made available through a disaster relief package passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. In December 2019, Congress passed -- and Trump signed -- the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, which provides an additional $1.5 billion for the continuation of disaster assistance program delivery.
“It’s true that farmers and ranchers are no strangers to the impact natural disasters have on their operations, but disaster events the past two years have been atypically widespread, relentless and unforgiving,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said. “In some instances, producers have suffered multiple disaster events in one year or in several years back to back. I am pleased that Congress has afforded USDA the authority to continue providing much-needed assistance to producers who have lost so much these last few years. President Trump has the backs of our farmers, and we aim to support them as they recover.”
WHIP+ new qualifying disaster events
The bill added excessive moisture and D3 and D4 drought designations as qualifying losses for WHIP+ assistance.
Beginning March 23, producers who suffered either of these types of loss in 2018 and/or 2019 can apply for WHIP+ assistance at their local FSA office. For drought, a producer is eligible if any area of the county in which the loss occurred was rated D3 (extreme drought) or higher on the U.S. Drought Monitor during calendar years 2018 or 2019.
WHIP+ sugar beet loss assistance
As directed in the appropriations bill, USDA also will provide $285 million through sugar beet processing cooperatives to compensate grower members for sugar beet crop losses in 2018 and 2019. Details will be finalized in agreements between USDA and participating sugar beet processing cooperatives. Sugar beet producers who are members of these cooperatives and experienced losses may contact their cooperative for more information about how this sugar beet crop assistance will be administered.
WHIP+ for quality loss
In addition, producers have reported widespread crop quality loss from eligible disaster events that resulted in price deductions or penalties when marketing the damaged crops. The appropriations bill expands WHIP+ to include assistance for crop quality loss. FSA is gathering data and input from producers and stakeholders regarding the extent and types of quality loss nationwide.
“Providing assistance for quality loss is complicated, and we are actively gathering data and input on how to administer quality loss assistance for producers,” USDA farm production and conservation undersecretary Bill Northey said.
Eligibility
To be eligible for WHIP+, producers must have suffered losses of certain crops, trees, bushes or vines in counties with a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration or a Secretarial Disaster Designation (primary counties only) for the following named natural disaster events: hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic activity, snowstorms, wildfires and, now, excessive moisture that occurred in 2018 or 2019. Also, losses located in a county not designated by the secretary as a primary county may be eligible if the producer provides documentation showing that the loss was due to a qualifying natural disaster event.
For drought, counties having a D3 or D4 Drought Monitor classification in any portion of the county anytime during calendar year 2018 or 2019 will also be eligible.
A list of counties that received qualifying hurricane declarations and designations is available at farmers.gov/recover/whip-plus. The U.S. Drought Monitor is available at https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu.
Because livestock losses are covered by other disaster recovery programs offered through FSA, these losses are not eligible for WHIP+.
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