Are you a producer of specialty crops including fruits, vegetables, horticulture, tree nuts, honey, maple sap, or indigo whose operation has been directly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic? USDA is implementing Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) 2 for agricultural producers who continue to face market disruptions and associated costs because of COVID-19.
CFAP 2 will provide producers with financial assistance that gives them the ability to absorb some of the increased marketing costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. USDA will accept CFAP 2 applications beginning Monday, Sept. 21 through Dec. 11, 2020. Learn more at www.farmers.gov/cfap.
Eligible Specialty Crops
Vegetables eligible for CFAP 2 include: alfalfa sprouts, aloe vera, artichokes, arugula (greens), asparagus, bamboo shoots, batatas, bean sprouts, beans (including dry edible), beets, bok choy, broccoflower, broccoli, broccolini, broccolo-cavalo, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, calaloo, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chickpea (see beans, garbanzo), chives, collard greens, coriander, corn, sweet, cucumbers, daikon, dandelion greens, dasheen (taro root, malanga), dill, eggplant, endive, escarole, frisee, gailon (gai lein, Chinese broccoli), garlic, gourds, greens, horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes (sunchoke), kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lentils, lettuce, melongene, mesculin mix, microgreens, mushrooms, okra, onions, parsnip, peas (including dry edible), pejibaye (heart of palm), peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, radicchio, radishes, rhubarb, rutabaga, salsify (oyster plant), scallions, seed – vegetable, shallots, spinach, squash, swiss chard, tannier, taro, tomatillos, tomatoes, truffles, turnip top (greens), turnips, yam, and yautia (malanga).
Go to https://www.farmers.gov/cfap/specialty to find other specialty crops covered.
Specialty crops eligible for CFAP 2 exclude crops with an intended use of grazing, green manure, or left standing.
CFAP 2 payments are available for eligible producers of specialty crop commodities categorized as either sales commodities or flat-rate crops. Specifically:
- Sales commodities have payment calculations that use a sales-based approach, where producers of eligible commodities are paid based on five payment gradations associated with their 2019 sales. Eligible fruits, vegetables, horticulture, tree nuts, honey, and maple sap are categorized as sales-based commodities.
- Flat-rate crops either do not meet the five-percent-or-greater national price decline trigger noted above or do not have data available to calculate a price change, but will have CFAP 2 payments calculated based on eligible acres of the crop planted in 2020. Indigo is categorized as a flat-rate commodity.
CFAP 2 Payments for Sales Specialty Crops
Payments for fruits, vegetables, horticulture, tree nuts, honey, and maple sap will be based on the producer’s 2019 sales of eligible commodities in a declining block format using the following payment factors, and will be equal to:
- The amount of the producer’s eligible sales in calendar year 2019, multiplied by
- The payment rate for that range.
Payments for fruit, vegetable, horticulture, tree nut, honey, and maple sap producers who began farming in 2020 and had no sales in 2019 will be based on the producer’s actual 2020 sales as of the producer’s application date.
Eligible sales only include sales of raw commodities grown by the producer. The portion of sales derived from adding value to the commodity, such as processing and packaging, and from sales of products purchased for resale, is not included in the payment calculation.
Example: A producer’s 2019 sales of eligible commodities totaled $75,000. The payment is calculated as ($49,999 times 10.6%) plus ($25,001 times 9.9%) equals a total payment of $7,775.
Additional examples of CFAP 2 sales commodity calculations for five hypothetical specialty commodity producers can be found on page 22 of the Cost-Benefit Analysis published under CFAP 2 Resources on farmers.gov/cfap. We recommend referencing these examples to calculate your estimated CFAP 2 payments for fruits, vegetables, horticulture, tree nuts, maple sap, and honey.
More information can be found at https://www.farmers.gov/cfap and https://www.farmers.gov/cfap/specialty.