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Federal Farm Disaster Assistance
Policy
A USDA
publication states that “Agricultural-related
disasters are quite common. One-half to two-thirds
of the counties have been designated as disaster
areas in the each of the past several years.”
But much federal disaster assistance is ad hoc,
and is available only when Congress makes a special
appropriation.
This often means that assistance for disasters
may become available one, two, even three years
after the disaster occurred. This assistance can
help compensate farmers for previous losses, but
does little to address the immediate crisis and
loss of income.
The ad hoc nature of disaster assistance also
makes it difficult for employees in the local
Farm Service Agency offices that administer the
programs to keep track of the programs, much less
master their rules and ensure that farmers get
the assistance they are entitled to.
When Congressional funding does come, it may
come at the expense of funding for other programs,
such as the popular Conservation Security Program,
as happened last fall.
Whatever the type of farmer, few regard the
low-interest Emergency Loans offered by USDA as
sufficient to recover from disaster losses. Many
farmers have already maximized the amount of debt
they can finance, and simply cannot take on any
more debt.
Farmers in “niche markets,” such
as organic agriculture, may have difficulty obtaining
coverage for the premium prices they receive for
their products.
Livestock producers, in particular, have few
places to turn to address the increased costs
when forage and feed crops are affected by flooding
or drought, or when animals are lost as a result
of natural disaster. Farmers may obtain assistance
for grazing losses under the Livestock Assistance
Program or the Crop Disaster Program. But they
won’t receive compensation under those programs
for losses this year, at least not now. Those
programs are currently available and funded for
losses in the 2003 and 2004 crop years.
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