Stay Informed

Farmers have until Friday, Aug. 17, to apply for the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, which will offer a one-time payment to farmers included in the 2025 American Relief Act.

The program will provide a prescribed per-acre payment on all planted acres and payment on 50% of acres reported as prevented planted.

Administered by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, the economic relief payments are based on the amount of eligible planted and prevented-planted crop acres for the 2024 crop year. Essentially, the per-acre payments were set as either:

• A percentage of estimated losses per acre for each commodity.
• A percentage of the commodity’s reference price.

USDA is issuing up to $10 billion directly to eligible agricultural producers through ECAP for the 2024 crop year.

To be eligible, you must be actively engaged in farming, have an interest in input expenses for a covered commodity, have reported eligible planted and prevent plant acres to FSA via an FSA-578 (Report of Acreage) form and, if applicable, submitted a CCC-576 (Notice of Loss) form. If eligible acreage has not previously been reported to FSA, it must be reported by the Aug. 15 deadline.

Farmers who reported eligible commodities as planted acres or prevent plant acres to FSA by March 10 were mailed a pre-filled ECAP application. However, producers can visit fsa.usda.gov/ecap to apply using a login.gov account or contact their local FSA office to request an application. Each farmer will submit one single application, even if they have acres in multiple counties or states.