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Nursery and Floriculture Added to Coronavirus Food Assistance Program
Donnie Green

Commercial nursery and floriculture crops have now been added as eligible commodities for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) and the signup deadline has now been extended to September 11, 2020.

If you had nursery or floriculture crops that meet either or both of the following two conditions, you could be eligible for CFAP benefits:

·         Inventory that was shipped but subsequently spoiled, or is unpaid due to loss of marketing channels between January 15, 2020 and April 15, 2020; and/or,

·         Inventory that did not leave the farm between January 15, 2020 and April 15, 2020, due to a complete loss of marketing channels.

Inventory that may be sold after April 15, 2020, inventory that is normally culled in advance of shipping, or upon delivery, and inventory sold at a discounted price is not eligible for CFAP benefits.

Additionally, the following commodity eligibility changes will affect producers in our counties:1) all sheep are now eligible (previously, only sheep less than two years old were eligible) and, 2) nursery and floriculture crops are now eligible. Green says the specifics of what information is needed to apply for nursery crops, as well as some defintions of eligible nursery crops, can be obtained by contacting the DeKalb-Cannon County Farm Service Agency at (615) 597-8225, Ext. 2. 

If you have an interest share in commercially-grown crops (corn or soybeans) or livestock (cattle, sheep, or swine) and have not signed up, or if you have commodities that were added by this rule change, you should immediately contact the FSA office. The application process is very simple and takes less than 10 minutes. To clarify, both sold and unsold livestock are eligible for payment under this program. There is no minimum number of livestock required to be owned to receive benefits under this program.

Again, the deadline has been extended to September 11, 2020.

USDA Service Centers currently are not permitted to have customers in the building. You can telephone the offie at 615-597-8225, Ext. 2, email the office at donald.green@usda.gov, or apply online at www.farmers.gov/cfap