Brownwood, Texas, July 11, 2011 Brown County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director CED, Cody Norris, announced that the deadline to apply for assistance for 2009 crop losses under the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) program is July 29, 2011.
“The SURE program compensates producers for production and/or quality losses during times of disaster,” said CED Norris. “All producers who have experienced crop production and/or crop quality losses must apply for SURE program benefits by the July 29th deadline,” he/she said.
To meet program eligibility requirements, the farming operation must be physically located in a county that was declared a primary or contiguous disaster county by the Secretary of Agriculture under a 2009 Secretarial Disaster Designation.
Producers located in designated disaster counties must have suffered at least a 10 percent loss on a crop of economic significance and purchased crop insurance through the Federal Crop Insurance Act or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP).
However, an operation located in a county that did not receive a primary or contiguous disaster designation, can still qualify for SURE benefits if the actual farm production was less than 50 percent of the normal production on the farm due to a qualifying disaster event.
Producers and legal entities collectively cannot, directly or indirectly, receive more than $100,000 in SURE and other FSA disaster assistance payments. FSA disaster programs include SURE, Livestock Forage Program (LFP), Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-raised Fish (ELAP).
Producers or legal entities, whose nonfarm income is more than $500,000, are not eligible for SURE program payments.
For questions regarding the SURE program, please contact the Brown County FSA office at 325/643-2573
