Producers have about a month left to enroll in the USDA’s Supplemental Disaster Relief Program before a second wave of assistance is released.
Deputy Under Secretary Brooke Appleton tells Brownfield $16 billion is available for losses that occurred in 2023 and 2024 from natural disasters through the American Relief Act.
“There is support waiting for you in your county office,” she says. “This program, particularly SDRP, really has been built to be easy, and to access fast, and to deliver quickly.”
Appleton says producers will need to provide evidence of uninsured losses when the second stage of the program opens in October.
“We’ve gotten over $4.5 billion out the door, but there is more money in the program,” she shares. “We want to make sure our folks have gotten the prefilled application, that they’re going into the local office, that they’re having those discussions.”
Producers in Minnesota, Kansas, and Iowa have received the most assistance to date.
Appleton says the Economic Disaster Assistance Program hasn’t distributed its full $8 billion in payments to producers, and there could potentially be a top-off payment before the end of the year.
