By Brian Gilliland

DOVER — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced agricultural producers who suffered eligible crop losses due to natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can now apply for $16 billion in assistance on July 9.

USDA’s Farm Service Agency is delivering assistance in two stages, it said. The first stage is open to producers with eligible crop losses that received assistance under crop insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program during 2023 and 2024. Sign up for this stage has opened in person at FSA county offices, and prefilled applications are being mailed to producers. Stage Two signups for eligible shallow or uncovered losses will begin in early fall.

USDA disaster assistance information can be found at farmers.gov.