BISMARCK – Disaster relief legislation passed by Congress last May included more than $3 billion to cover crop losses from 2018 and 2019, including losses currently being experienced by farmers due to excessive moisture and snowfall, Sen. John Hoeven said Monday. Hoeven is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee.

Counties with a presidential or secretarial disaster declaration are automatically eligible for the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+). Producers who are not in counties with a declared disaster may also be eligible but must supply documentation establishing that crops were directly impacted by a qualifying disaster event.

While some counties in North Dakota have a disaster declaration for spring flooding, to be automatically eligible in the latest snowfall losses, a new declaration must be issued.

Hoeven spoke with U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Stephen Censky to outline the challenges facing North Dakota producers and to ensure that USDA works with producers impacted by disasters. The senator also spoke with North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and Farm Service Agency State Executive Director Brad Thykeson about assisting the state’s producers.

“Extremely wet conditions this fall and the early blizzard have only compounded the challenges facing our producers,”Hoeven said in a news release. “We worked to ensure that the disaster assistance legislation passed by Congress earlier this year provides coverage for producers impacted by blizzards, and I have already spoken with Deputy Secretary Censky to outline these challenges and the need to assist our producers. We continue working with USDA to provide producers with much needed assistance under the disaster supplemental we approved earlier this year.”

Under WHIP+, USDA will provide assistance to producers affected by natural disasters in 2018 and 2019. Payments from the program will take into account a producer’s crop insurance coverage and size of the loss. No one will receive more than 100% of the value of their crop.

An eligible crop:

– must be intended for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 crop years.

– must be eligible for either crop insurance or Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program coverage, excluding crops intended for grazing since these losses are covered by other disaster recovery programs offered through FSA.

Impacted farmers should contact their FSA county office or visit farmers.gov/recover/whip-plus for additional details.