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   USDA Offers Disaster Assistance to Agricultural Producers in Texas Impacted by Recent Severe Weather, Tornadoes and Flooding
   
   COLLEGE STATION/TEMPLE, Texas, April 10, 2025 - Agricultural operations in Texas have actually been significantly impacted by recent severe weather condition, twisters and flooding. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has technical and financial help readily available to help farmers and livestock manufacturers recuperate from these negative weather occasions. Impacted manufacturers should contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and discover more about program choices offered to help in their recovery from crop, land, facilities, and livestock losses and damages.
   
   USDA Disaster Assistance
   
   Producers who experience livestock deaths in excess of normal death might be eligible for the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). To take part in LIP, manufacturers will have to provide appropriate paperwork of death losses resulting from a qualified negative weather occasion and should submit a notice of loss and program payment application to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) no later than March 2, 2026, for 2025 fiscal year losses. Livestock manufacturers who experience losses associated to tornadoes should contact their regional FSA workplace for LIP eligibility requirements.
   
   Meanwhile, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) provides eligible manufacturers with compensation for feed and grazing losses. For ELAP, manufacturers are needed to complete a notification of loss and send a payment application to their local FSA office no later on than the yearly program application deadline, March 2, 2026, for 2025 fiscal year losses.
   
   Additionally, qualified orchardists and nursery tree growers might be eligible for cost-share help through the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) to replant or rehabilitate qualified trees, bushes or vines. TAP matches the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) or crop insurance coverage, which covers the crop but not the plants or trees in all cases. For TAP, a program application need to be submitted within 90 days of the catastrophe event or the date when the loss of the trees, bushes or vines appears.
   
   "Impacted producers ought to prompt report all crop, livestock and farm facilities damages and losses to their regional FSA county office as quickly as possible," stated Erasmo "Eddie" Trevino, Deputy State Executive Director for FSA in Texas. "As you evaluate your operation, require time to gather important files you will require to get help, including farm records, herd stock, receipts and images of damages or losses."
   
   FSA likewise uses a variety of direct and guaranteed farm loans, including operating and emergency farm loans, to manufacturers not able to protect commercial financing. Producers in counties with a main or adjoining disaster designation might be qualified for low interest emergency loans to assist them recover from production and physical losses. Loans can help manufacturers change necessary residential or commercial property, purchase inputs like livestock, devices, feed and seed, cover household living expenditures or refinance farm-related debts and other requirements.
   
   Additionally, FSA offers several loan servicing choices readily available for customers who are unable to make scheduled payments on their farm loan programs financial obligation to the agency since of reasons beyond their control.
   
   The Farm Storage Facility Loan Program (FSFL) offers low-interest financing so producers can develop, repair, replace or upgrade centers to store products. Loan terms vary from 3 to 12 years. Producers who incurred damage to or loss of their devices or infrastructure funded by the FSFL program need to call their insurance agent and their regional Center. Producers in requirement of on-farm storage should likewise contact USDA.
   
   Risk Management
   
   Producers with NAP coverage ought to report crop damage to their local FSA office and should submit a Notification of Loss (CCC-576) within 15 days of the loss becoming obvious, other than for hand-harvested crops, which must be reported within 72 hours.
   
   Producers with danger security through Federal Crop Insurance must report crop damage to their crop insurance representative within 72 hours of discovering damage and make sure to follow up in composing within 15 days.
   
   "Crop insurance and other USDA threat management alternatives are offered to assist producers manage danger because we never ever know what nature has in store for the future," said Jim Bellmon, Director of USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) Regional Office that covers Texas. "The Approved Insurance Providers, loss adjusters and representatives are knowledgeable and well-trained in dealing with these types of events."
   
   Conservation
   
   FSA's Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) can assist landowners and forest stewards with financial and technical help to restore fencing, harmed farmland or forests, and eliminate debris from feed stocks, water products and feeding locations.
   
   USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is constantly offered to offer technical assistance during the recovery procedure by helping manufacturers to plan and execute preservation practices on farms and working forests impacted by natural disasters. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) can assist producers strategy and implement conservation practices on land affected by natural disasters.
   
   "The Natural Resources Conservation Service can be a very important partner to assist landowners with their healing and resiliency efforts," stated Kristy Oates, NRCS State Conservationist in Texas. "Our staff will work individually with landowners to make assessments of the damages and establish approaches that concentrate on reliable recovery of the land."
   
   Assistance for Communities
   
   Additional NRCS programs consist of the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program, which helps city government sponsors with the expense of attending to watershed problems or risks such as debris removal and streambank stabilization.
   
   Eligible sponsors include cities, counties, towns or any federally acknowledged Native American tribe or tribal company. Sponsors need to send an official demand (by mail or email) to the NRCS state conservationist for assistance within 60 days of the natural disaster occurrence or 60 days from the date when access to the sites end up being offered. For more details sponsors should please contact their local NRCS office.
   
   Additional USDA disaster assistance info can be discovered on farmers.gov, consisting of USDA resources particularly for manufacturers impacted by twisters. Those resources include the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster-at-a-Glance truth sheet and Loan Assistance Tool. Additionally, FarmRaise partnered with FSA to release an online education hub comprised of videos, tools and interactive resources, consisting of farm loan information and LIP and ELAP decision tools. For FSA and NRCS programs, manufacturers ought to contact their local USDA Service Center. For assistance with a crop insurance coverage claim, producers and landowners need to contact their crop insurance coverage agent.