Jean Davis, Cattaraugus County USDA Farm Service Agency executive director, reminds producers they have until Monday, Oct. 1, to purchase coverage through the Noninsurable Crop Disaster Assistance Program.
The date is extended one day because Sept. 30 falls on a weekend. The deadline date includes all grasses, mixed forage, clover and all fall and spring small grains including wheat, barley, oats, rye, triticale and speltz. The Noninsurable Crop Disaster Assistance Program provides financial assistance to producers of noninsurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory or prevented planting occur due to normal disasters.
Purchasing a crop insurance policy is an easy way for producers to mitigate risk. The past few years have shown that natural disasters can severely impact an otherwise successful operation.
In order to meet eligibility requirements, crops must be noninsurable, commercially-produced agricultural commodity crops for which the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance is not available. If the Risk Management Agency offers coverage for a crop in the county, then NAP coverage is not available for that crop.
In the event of a natural disaster, NAP covers the amount of loss greater than 50 percent of the expected production based on the approved yield and reported acreage.
Producers must file the application and service fee by Oct. 1. The service fee is the lesser of $250 per crop or $750 per producer per administrative county, not to exceed a total of $1,875 for a producer with farming interests in multiple counties.
For more information, call the Cattaraugus County FSA office at 699-2375, ext 2; or contact the local county Farm Service Agency.