by: Chris Zoller, Extension Educator, ANR, Tuscarawas County
Farmers are encouraged to contact their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office to apply for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2.0 (CFAP 2.0). The application deadline is December 11, 2020. President Trump and USDA Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced an expansion of the original CFAP intended to provide support to farmers who suffered losses because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following information is sourced from USDA and available at https://www.farmers.gov/cfap.
Eligibility
Any individual or legal entity who shares in the risk of producing a commodity may apply for CFAP 2. Producers must be in the business of farming and producing commercially produced commodities at the time of submitting their application to be eligible. Commodities grown under a contract in which the grower has ownership and production risk are eligible for CFAP 2.
To be eligible for payments, a person or legal entity must have an average adjusted gross income of less than $900,000 for tax years 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, if 75 percent of their adjusted gross income (AGI) comes from farming, the AGI limit of $900,000 does not apply and the person or legal entity is eligible to receive CFAP 2 payments up to the applicable payment limitation.
Persons and legal entities also must:
- comply with the provisions of the “Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation” regulations, often called the conservation compliance provisions; and
- not have a controlled substance violation.
Eligible Commodities
Commodities eligible for CFAP 2.0 include: row crops, wool, livestock, specialty livestock, dairy, specialty crops, floriculture and nursery, aquaculture, broilers and eggs, and tobacco.
Ineligible Commodities
Commodities not eligible for CFAP 2 include:
- Hay, except alfalfa, and crops intended for grazing are ineligible for CFAP 2.
- All equine, breeding stock, companion or comfort animals, pets, and animals raised for hunting or game purposes.
- Birdsfoot and trefoil, clover, cover crop, fallow, forage soybeans, forage sorghum, gardens (commercial and home), grass, kochia (prostrata), lespedeza, milkweed, mixed forage, pelts (excluding mink), perennial peanuts, pollinators, sunn hemp, vetch, and seed of ineligible crops.
How to Apply
To complete the CFAP 2 application, producers will need to reference their sales, inventory, and other records. However, since CFAP 2 is a self-certification program, this documentation will not need to be submitted with the application. Because applications are subject to County Committee review and spot check, some producers will be required to provide documentation. Producers should retain the records and documentation they use to complete the application.
Applications can be completed online, manually, or through your local FSA office. Additional information about the application, including a calculator, is available here https://www.farmers.gov/cfap.