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USDA Announces SURE Sign-up for 2011 Losses - October 15, 2012

USDA's Farm Service Agency has announced that the sign-up period for the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE) for losses in 2011 will open on Oct. 22, 2012. Interested farmers should contact their county FSA office.

SURE was one of the disaster assistance programs created in the 2008 Farm Bill to provide assistance to farmers who suffered crop losses caused by natural disasters. Because this program expired on Sept. 30, 2011, the losses for the 2011 crop year must have occurred on or before Sept. 30; losses after that date are not eligible.

To be eligible for SURE, a farm must have:

At least a 10-percent production loss on a crop of economic significance

A policy or plan of insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) for all economically significant crops. Producers considered socially disadvantaged, a beginning farmer or rancher, or a limited resource farmer may be eligible for SURE without a policy or plan of insurance or NAP coverage.Been physically located in a county that was declared a primary disaster county or contiguous county by the Secretary of Agriculture under a Secretarial Disaster Designation. Without a Secretarial Disaster Designation, individual producers may be eligible if the actual production on the farm is less than 50 percent of the normal production on the farm due to a natural disaster.

A "farm" for SURE purposes means the entirety of all crop acreage in all counties that a producer planted or intended to be planted for harvest for normal commercial sale or on-farm livestock feeding, including native and improved grassland intended for haying.

Farmers interested in signing up must do so before the June 7, 2013 deadline. For more information on the 2011 SURE program, visit any FSA county office or the FSA website.


For questions on the information contained in this FB Alert, e-mail info@nyfb.org or call NYFB's Public Policy Department at 1-800-342-4143

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