Montana Farm Service Agency's Dick Deschamps, acting director, urges producers who want to purchase coverage for Value Loss Crops such as Christmas trees, crustaceans, fin fish and flowers through the Non-insurable Crop Disaster Assistance Program to do so before the sales closing date of Sept. 1, 2011.
NAP provides financial assistance to producers of non-insurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory or prevented planting occur due to normal disaster. Non-insurable crops are those – usually restricted production commodities – which are not eligible for other private or government policy coverage.
"Purchasing a crop insurance policy is an easy way for producers to practice risk management," Deschamps believes. "This year alone has proved that natural disasters can directly affect the profitability and recovery of agricultural operations."
In commodities other than Value Loss Crops, closing dates vary:
Honey: Dec. 1, 2011
All other crops have a NAP closing date of March 15, 2012.
In order to meet eligibility requirements for NAP, crops must be non-insurable, commercially produced agricultural commodity crops for which the federal government's catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance is not available.
If he Risk Management Agency offers coverage for a crop in any particular county, then NAP coverage is not available for that crop.
In the event of a natural disaster, NAP covers the amount of the loss greater than 50% of the expected production based on the approved yield and reported acreage, both of which will be announced later by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Eligible producers can apply for coverage using form CCC-471, Application for Coverage. Producers must file the application and service fee for Value Loss Crops by Sept. 1 or miss coverage.
The service fee is the lesser of $250 per crop or $750 per producer per administrative county, not to exceed a total of $1,875 for a producer with farming interests which may include several counties.
For more information on sales closing dates, contact your FSA office.