USDA Initiates Payments for Emergency Grain Storage Assistance Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA) is giving money to farmers who had trouble with their grain storage. This program is called the Emergency Grain Storage Facility Assistance Program (EGSFP). It helps farmers whose big storage places for grains got damaged because of bad events.

At the start, the program had $20 million in March, but lots of people applied, so now there's more money - $80 million. This is for farmers who had problems between December 1, 2021, and August 1, 2022, in eight Midwest states.

There were bad storms in places like Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tennessee. These storms damaged big storage buildings where farmers keep their grains. This help is possible because of the Commodity Credit Corporation, which helps quickly when farmers face big problems.

Zach Ducheneaux, who works for FSA, said, "A lot of people asked for help, more than what we had first said yes to. So now we have $80 million to give, and more people can get help."

Even though there's more money now, it might not be enough to help all the farmers who need it. So, FSA got another $40 million to help even more farmers. They are working on this and will tell us more soon.

To get help from EGSFP, farmers need to have grains that are good for this program. They also must show they need more places to store their grains because of a bad event in their area. Farmers who get approved will get money to build new storage or fix old ones, so they can sell their grains easily.

The time to sign up has been changed to August 7, 2023 because of the more money. FSA looks at how much money the farmers need and multiplies it with the part of the grains they have. Then, they use a number like 75% or 90% to get the final amount.

If some farmers don't get help from EGSFP, FSA will talk to them. If you need help but can't get it from EGSFP, there's another way called the Farm Storage Facility Loan Program (FSFL). This gives money at a low cost to farmers who need places to store grains. FSA is also thinking about changing some rules for FSFL to make it even easier for farmers to get help.

Photo Credit: istock-sasapanchenko