By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A provision of the 2008 farm bill gives producers another opportunity to be eligible for federal disaster relief, state USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) officials said last week.

Many details of the buy-in program, however, have yet to be finalized – and they may not be before the Sept. 16 registration deadline, said Ron Birt, Indiana FSA program specialist.
“We might have a draft proposed rule by then,” Birt said. “But the specific programs aren’t written yet. They haven‘t even written a draft yet.”

The buy-in waiver for supplemental agricultural disaster assistance allows producers who might otherwise not be eligible for disaster relief programs to become eligible by paying a fee. The buy-in was necessary because the farm bill was approved after the deadlines had passed for selling crop insurance policies for 2008.

Farmers who buy into the program are not buying insurance but are making themselves eligible for various federal disaster programs, said Rick Kelley, also an Indiana FSA program specialist. The 2008 farm bill requires that farmers who want to be eligible for these programs have minimum level coverage through crop insurance or non-insured crop disaster assistance (NAP) coverage, he said.

“I urge every producer whose crops, including grazing lands, are not fully covered by crop insurance or NAP to take advantage of this one-time opportunity,” Kenneth Culp, executive director for Indiana’s FSA, said in a statement. “If you miss this opportunity, you will not be eligible for disaster assistance.”

The buy-in fee for catastrophic risk protection insurance (CAT) or NAP is $100 per crop, but not more than $300 per producer per county, or $900 total per producer.

“To be eligible for whatever’s coming, you have to have full coverage,” Birt said. “But we’re trying to sell somebody something without having the program finalized.”

Once the program’s details are written, a public comment period of 30-90 days will be scheduled, he said.

Producers are used to getting insurance on their corn and soybean crops, but not for other crops, Birt said. Under the farm bill, NAP crops such as forages, fruits and vegetables must also be covered in order for producers to be eligible to receive federal disaster assistance, he said.

“All hay and grasslands, pastures for livestock, must be covered for eligibility,” Kelley said. “In Indiana, we have very few policies on those now.”

Producers should also understand that just having hail coverage isn’t enough to be eligible for the disaster assistance programs, Kelley said. Coverage would also need to include a variety of weather-related disaster conditions, such as drought, moisture and heat.

The 2008 farm bill provides the first continuous disaster relief coverage farmers have had in a while, Kelley said. In prior years, Birt said, legislation was written for and applied to a specific disaster.

The new farm bill implements several disaster relief programs, including Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE), which will be available to producers in disaster or contiguous counties, as designated by the USDA secretary, where they have incurred crop production or crop quality losses during the crop year.

Farms where the total loss of production during the calendar year because of weather is greater than 50 percent of its normal production, are also eligible. The bill also implements assistance programs covering grazing losses, livestock death losses and losses to producers enrolled in the Emergency Assistance Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP).

In addition to the Sept. 16 deadline to participate in the buy-in, a couple of deadlines are also approaching for some NAP crops for 2009, Kelley said: The deadline for applying for Christmas trees, flowers and nursery crops is Sept. 1, and Sept. 30 for grazing, forage, hay and mint.

Troy Hobson, who serves as county executive director for FSA in Morgan, Monroe, Owen and Brown counties, said he expects many farmers in his counties to consider the buy-in program.

“They’ll need it. They’ll need to look into it to see if it fits their situation,” he said. “I would guess 80 to 90 percent of the producers here should at least take a look at it.”

Flood damage in his counties has been widespread, and Hobson said he would hate to see farmers become ineligible for assistance because they didn’t participate in the buy-in program.

“It’s going to take some time to recover,” he said. “It’s going to take some dollars to fix what has been done. We’ve had some replanting and we’re hoping for a late frost.”

The cost to buy into guarantee future eligibility for disaster assistance is a pretty cheap way to get the protection, said Troy Hill, county executive director for FSA in Bartholomew County.
“Any assistance they can get will be beneficial,” he said. “A lot of farmers will take advantage of the buy-in to get back some of their lost income.”

Depending on where farmers live in his county, replanting has been done for a while or just recently, he said.

“For the ones who live in the river bottoms, it’s been a little discouraging. They did their last replant over the weekend, and they’re just worn out,” he said. “But for others, they’ve been done awhile and the crop is looking okay. They have pretty good prospects and a good outlook.”

More than half of the farmers in Bartholomew County will probably participate in the buy-in program, Hill said.

Farmers in Lawrence County have also been replanting, and those in flooded areas will probably participate in the buy-in program in high numbers, said Jim Hudelson, county executive director for Lawrence County FSA.

“They have to weigh the damage with the cost of participation,” he said.

“But I would imagine a higher percentage will participate because it’s cheaper this year, just to protect themselves.”

The replanted crops in the county look good but will just be late, he said. “They’re growing well. If we have a late frost, we’re looking at a pretty decent crop,” he said. “We’re not going to bust the bins, but we’ll have a crop.”

Producers wanting more information, or who want to sign up for the buy-in waiver, should contact their local FSA office.