Press Releases
09/02/2021
CT Department of Agriculture Urges Farmers to Report Crop Damage or Loss to USDA Farm Service Agency
The Connecticut Department of Agriculture is encouraging farmers and agricultural producers who may have experienced crop damage or loss due to Storm Ida to contact their United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) county office.
Steps to Take Following Extreme Weather Events
- Check with your crop insurance and/or local Farm Services Agency (FSA) representatives regarding exact documentation to certify losses, procedures for initiating claims, possible financial assistance.
- Take photos of damaged field for visual documentation. Estimate crop value and degree of losses.
- Contact your county FSA office and fill out a crop loss report. This benefits your region because it helps to document the extent of damage to crops in your county which will determine eligibility for federal disaster aid. It will benefit you by establishing what level of damage you sustained. You do not need to have crop insurance to be eligible for disaster aid should your county be eligible.
- Contact your crop insurance representative to arrange a visit with an adjuster and call your financial lenders to discuss available options.
- Follow FDA guidance on evaluating the safety of flood-affected food crops for human consumption. For more information, click here.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the Farm Service Agency (FSA), has disaster assistance programs available to help agricultural producers recover after natural disasters, including flooding and wind events.
FSA offers many programs to help producers recover from losses, including the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP), Emergency Forest Restoration Program and the Tree Assistance Program. Producers located in counties receiving a primary or contiguous disaster designation are eligible for low-interest emergency loans to help them recover from production and physical losses.
The FSA Emergency Conservation Program provides funding and technical assistance for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters.
Compensation is also available to producers who purchased coverage through FSA’s Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, which protects non-insurable crops against natural disasters that result in lower yields, crop losses or prevented planting. Eligible producers must have purchased NAP coverage for 2021 crops and file a notice of loss and application for payment on qualifying crops.
Please contact your local FSA office for more information about disaster assistance programs or visit farmers.gov/recover
The Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DoAg) mission is to foster a healthy economic, environmental and social climate for agriculture by developing, promoting, and regulating agricultural businesses; protecting agricultural and aquacultural resources; enforcing laws pertaining to domestic animals; and promoting an understanding among the state's citizens of the diversity of Connecticut agriculture, its cultural heritage, and its contribution to the state's economy. For more information, visit www.CTGrown.gov.
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