Program Offering Direct Payments for Farmers Reopens

Missed your chance to apply for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s signature COVID-19 assistance program for farmers? Another opportunity to apply for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which offers direct payments to eligible producers, is now available.

The reopened window to apply for the CFAP 2 program or amend existing applications is part of a larger initiative USDA recently announced to provide pandemic assistance to more producers who may have been left out of earlier rounds of aid.

Payments are limited to $250,000 per person or entity, with some exceptions for corporations, limited liability companies, or limited partnerships in which members actively provide labor or management. There is an Adjusted Gross Income limit of $900,000, except for producers who make at least 75 percent of their income from farming. Applicants must also meet conservation compliance provisions.

The following commodities are eligible for the CFAP 2 program. Click each category for more details on payments.

Row crops: alfalfa, amaranth grain, barley, buckwheat, canola, corn, Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton, upland cotton, crambe (colewort), einkorn, emmer, flax, guar, hemp, indigo, industrial rice, kenaf, khorasan, millet, mustard, oats, peanuts, quinoa, rapeseed, rice, sweet rice, wild rice, rye, safflower, sesame, sorghum, soybeans, speltz, sugar beets, sugarcane, sunflowers, teff, triticale, and all classes of wheat.
Dairy: Cow and goat milk are both eligible.
Broilers, eggs and pullets
Livestock: beef cattle, hogs and pigs, and lambs and sheep. (Contract growers can continue to apply; however, application processing and payments are on hold as USDA reviews this aspect of the program.
Specialty crops: More than 230 fruit, vegetable, horticulture and tree nut crops as well as honey, maple sap and indigo.
Wool
Specialty livestock: alpacas, bison, buffalo, beefalo, deer, ducks, elk, emus, geese, goats, guinea pigs, llamas, mink (including pelts), mohair, ostrich, pheasants, quail, rabbits, reindeer, and turkey.
Floriculture and nursery crops
Aquaculture
Tobacco

Certain commodities are not eligible for the program, including:

Hay, except alfalfa, and crops intended for grazing.
All equine, breeding stock, companion or comfort animals, pets, and animals raised for hunting or game purposes.
Birdsfoot and trefoil, clover, cover crop, fallow, forage soybeans, forage sorghum, gardens (commercial and home), grass, kochia (prostrata), lespedeza, milkweed, mixed forage, pelts (excluding mink), perennial peanuts, pollinators, sunn hemp, vetch, and seed of ineligible crops.

Apply online or through your USDA Service Center. You can also contact USDA at 877.508.8364. If you applied for the first CFAP program, the application process will be easier for the second round because USDA likely has many of your documents already on file.

Learn more by clicking here.