Oct. 30 (UPI) — The federal government said Wednesday that more than $200 million will be made available to farmers hit by recent natural disasters such as Hurricane Milton.
“Florida farmers, livestock producers and forest landowners have been hit hard by hurricanes this year, and we’re continuing our efforts to help producers recover following hurricanes like Milton,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a release.
USDA said more than $235M in federal aid will be put aside for famers hit by natural disasters in recent years, including Hurricane Milton.
The assistance package, with payments to begin this week, includes $143M in crop insurance indemnities for Florida producers negatively affected by Milton, and about $92M for U.S. livestock producers that faced “increased supplemental feed costs as a result of forage losses due to 2022 qualifying drought and wildfire,” according to the department.
“We’ve used a number of flexibilities following hurricanes Debby and Helene, and we’re extending those to producers impacted by Hurricane Milton and future named storms,” Vilsack explained.
Payments for Florida-based agriculture producers will specifically be for those with current federal crop insurance coverage through the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index endorsement and the Tropical Storm option. And USDA added recipients will likely see payments from the approved insurance providers in the next 30 days.
Producers, according to the Agriculture Department, will not need to file a claim to receive an indemnity payment under HIP-WI. If a county is triggered, the insurance provider will then issue an indemnity payment.
According to USDA, the payments for livestock producers via the 2022 Emergency Livestock Relief Program will be the second round of relief payments using the program’s remaining balance.
Ag producers with crop insurance coverage beyond HIP-WI “will see indemnity payments in the coming weeks.”
Officials advised storm victims to contact a crop insurance agent as soon as crop or livestock losses become apparent if they have federal crop insurance.
