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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 been substantially impacted by current severe weather condition, tornadoes and flooding. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has technical and financial help available to help farmers and animals producers recuperate from these adverse weather condition occasions. Impacted manufacturers need to contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and discover more about program choices offered to help in their healing from crop, land, facilities, and livestock losses and damages.

USDA Disaster Assistance

Producers who experience livestock deaths in excess of typical death may be qualified for the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). To get involved in LIP, manufacturers will need to offer acceptable documentation of death losses resulting from an eligible unfavorable weather condition event and must send a notice of loss and program payment application to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) no later than March 2, 2026, for 2025 calendar year losses. Livestock manufacturers who experience losses related to twisters must talk to their regional FSA workplace for LIP eligibility criteria.

Meanwhile, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) supplies eligible producers with payment for feed and grazing losses. For ELAP, manufacturers are needed to finish a notice of loss and send a payment application to their local FSA office no later on than the annual program application due date, March 2, 2026, for 2025 fiscal year losses.

Additionally, eligible orchardists and nursery tree growers might be qualified for cost-share assistance through the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) to replant or rehabilitate qualified trees, bushes or vines. TAP complements the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) or crop insurance protection, which covers the crop but not the plants or trees in all cases. For TAP, a program application should be submitted within 90 days of the catastrophe occasion or the date when the loss of the trees, bushes or vines is obvious.

"Impacted manufacturers ought to prompt report all crop, animals and farm infrastructure damages and losses to their regional FSA county workplace as quickly as possible," said Erasmo "Eddie" Trevino, Deputy State Executive Director for FSA in Texas. "As you assess your operation, require time to gather crucial documents you will require to get help, including farm records, herd inventory, invoices and images of damages or losses."

FSA also uses a variety of direct and ensured farm loans, including operating and emergency situation farm loans, to producers unable to protect commercial financing. Producers in counties with a primary or adjoining disaster classification may be qualified for low interest emergency loans to assist them recuperate from production and physical losses. Loans can help producers replace important residential or commercial property, purchase inputs like animals, devices, feed and seed, cover household living expenditures or refinance farm-related financial obligations and other requirements.

Additionally, FSA offers several loan servicing choices readily available for customers who are not able to make scheduled payments on their farm loan programs financial obligation to the agency because of reasons beyond their control.

The Farm Storage Facility Loan Program (FSFL) provides low-interest funding so manufacturers can construct, repair, replace or upgrade centers to keep products. Loan terms vary from three to 12 years. Producers who incurred damage to or loss of their devices or facilities funded by the FSFL program need to contact their insurance agent and their local USDA Service Center. Producers in requirement of on-farm storage must likewise contact USDA.

Risk Management

Producers with NAP coverage ought to report crop damage to their local FSA office and must file a Notice of Loss (CCC-576) within 15 days of the loss emerging, other than for hand-harvested crops, which should be reported within 72 hours.

Producers with danger protection through Federal Crop Insurance need to report crop damage to their crop insurance coverage representative within 72 hours of discovering damage and make sure to follow up in writing within 15 days.

"Crop insurance coverage and other USDA risk management options are offered to help producers handle risk due to the fact that we never know what nature has in store for the future," stated Jim Bellmon, Director of USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) Regional Office that covers Texas. "The Approved Insurance Providers, loss adjusters and agents are knowledgeable and well-trained in dealing with these types of occasions."

Conservation

FSA's Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) can help landowners and forest stewards with financial and technical support to bring back fencing, harmed farmland or forests, and get rid of debris from feed stocks, water materials and feeding locations.

USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is always offered to provide technical help during the healing process by assisting manufacturers to prepare and execute conservation practices on farms and working forests impacted by natural catastrophes. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) can help manufacturers plan and implement conservation practices on land impacted by natural catastrophes.

"The Natural Resources Conservation Service can be an extremely important partner to assist landowners with their recovery and resiliency efforts," said Kristy Oates, NRCS State Conservationist in Texas. "Our personnel will work individually with landowners to make assessments of the damages and establish approaches that focus on reliable recovery of the land."

Assistance for Communities

Additional NRCS programs include the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program, which helps local government sponsors with the cost of attending to watershed problems or hazards such as debris elimination and streambank stabilization.

Eligible sponsors include cities, counties, towns or any federally recognized Native American people or tribal organization. Sponsors need to submit a formal demand (by mail or e-mail) to the NRCS state conservationist for assistance within 60 days of the natural catastrophe incident or 60 days from the date when access to the sites become offered. To learn more sponsors ought to please contact their regional NRCS workplace.

Additional USDA catastrophe support info can be found on farmers.gov, including USDA resources particularly for manufacturers impacted by tornadoes. Those resources include the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster-at-a-Glance fact sheet and Loan Assistance Tool. Additionally, FarmRaise partnered with FSA to introduce an online education hub comprised of videos, tools and interactive resources, consisting of farm loan details and LIP and ELAP decision tools. For FSA and NRCS programs, producers must contact their local USDA Service Center. For help with a crop insurance claim, producers and landowners should contact their crop insurance coverage representative.