SURE Payment Eligibility

Sign-up for the 2008 SURE program began in January of 2010. Producers will want to sign-up at their county FSA office if they qualify for SURE. If a producer farms in multiple counties, visits to each county may be necessary to complete the application according to the FSA website. As of now, no sign-up deadline has been announced. Watch for further information on the www.fsa.usda.gov website.

There are several questions that need to be answered to determine if a farm is eligible for Supplemental Revenue Assurance Program (SURE) payment based on the 2008 crop losses. The SURE program was designed to assist farmers with a loss providing they have purchased crop insurance. The SURE Guarantee is set at 115% of the insurance level purchased for insurable crops plus 120% of crops covered with NAP not to exceed 90% of the farms total expected revenue. The SURE payment will be 60% of the difference between the SURE Guarantee and the actual crop revenue from the farm operation (see graph below). If you had all you crops insured in 2008, you have met the eligibility requirement and probably will qualify for a SURE payment. Payments are limited to $100,000 per entity, although most entities will receive less than the maximum payment.

As with most programs there is a list of exceptions. One of the exceptions is that non-significant crops did not need to be insured. A non-significant crop is a crop that produces less than 5% of the total farm revenue. For instance, if a farmer had a small wheat field where the value of the crop was $4,000 and the total expected farm revenue was $100,000, the wheat would not have needed to be insured. Under this example the wheat is 4% of the expected farm revenue which is less than the 5% threshold.

For crops where NAP insurance is the only option, crops would not need to be insured if the $250 administrative fee is greater than 10% of the crop value. For example, if a farmer had a small vineyard and sold $2,000 of grapes annually the administrative fee is greater than $200 (10% of $2,000). She would not need to buy NAP to be eligible for SURE, but may still want the insurance coverage to protect income.

Another exception is for new and beginning farmers. New and beginning farmers are defined as farmers with less than 10 years of experience. For farmers in this classification, the requirement for crop insurance is waived altogether and they would be eligible for a SURE payment regardless if they had crop insurance. There are also some exceptions for people falling into the classification of socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers. Producers are encouraged to check with their local Farm Services Agency staff to see if they qualify in one of these classifications.

It appears that SURE is following the same pattern that ACRE followed last summer in the aspect that USDA is refining the rules as the sign-up period progresses. My goal in writing this article is to increase awareness of the SURE sign-up and alert farmers that they may be eligible for payments, even if they did not have all of their crops insured. Producers need to watch for the SURE sign-up deadline announcement and make an appointment with their local FSA staff to discuss SURE eligibility and potential payments for their farm operation.

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