Coronavirus Food Assistance Program

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released details for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program or CFAP 2.0. What does that mean for producers of specialty crops? American Farm Bureau Economist Michael Nepveux says the program is broken down into three categories.

Nepveux… “They have price decline commodities, which is commodities that had to experience 5% or greater national price trigger. Then they have a flat rate per acre payment. So those first two probably aren't going to really apply to a lot of specialty crops. Your price trigger is mainly your row crops as well some livestock. I think a lot of the specialty crops are going to be included under the third category, which is sales commodities. So for that, it would basically take 2019 production and then you would multiply it by a percent payment rate, depending on how, how big your sales were. So for that case, as an example, if your sales as a business were over $1 million in 2019, you would multiply 8.8%, then that would be your payment rate for that. So that's the way a specialty crops are treated under the new one.”

Nepveux says sales commodities as listed in that last category of CFAP 2.0 include specialty crops, aquaculture, and nursery and floriculture. Consult the regulations at the USDA website for more details.