Agricultural operations in Florida have been significantly impacted by Hurricane Isaias. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has technical and financial assistance available to help farmers and livestock producers recover from these adverse weather events.
“USDA has a suite of programs to support farmers and ranchers as they recover from natural disasters,” said Farm Production and Conservation Under Secretary Richard Fordyce. “I encourage impacted producers to contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and learn more about program options available to assist in their recovery from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses and damages.”
USDA Disaster Assistance
Producers who experience livestock deaths in excess of normal mortality or sell injured livestock at a reduced price may be eligible for the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). To participate in LIP, producers must provide acceptable documentation of death losses or evidence of reduced sales resulting from an eligible adverse event, including an adverse weather event, and submit a notice of loss to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) no later than March 1, 2027, for 2026 calendar year losses.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) provides eligible livestock producers with compensation for feed and grazing losses. For honeybees, ELAP may cover colony loss and damage to hives and purchased or produced feed. ELAP may also cover purchased or produced farm-raised fish feed losses for feed that was intended to be fed to eligible farm-raised fish along with any physical inventory loss of the eligible farm raised fish. For ELAP, producers are required to complete a notice of loss and submit a payment application to their local FSA office no later than March 1, 2027, for 2026 calendar year losses.
Source : usda.gov