The Coronavirius Food Assistance Program (CFAP) enrollment period opens on Tuesday, May 26 for eligible agricultural producers. Eligible producers are defined as any person or legal entity that shared in the risk of producing the crop or is entitled to share in the revenue from marketing on Jan. 15, 2020 or April 16, 2020 through May 14, 2020. An eligible producer must also be a U.S. citizen or resident alien.
Eligible non-specialty crops include malting barley, canola, corn, upland cotton, millet, oats, soybeans, sorghum, sunflowers, durum wheat, hard red spring wheat and wool.
Eligible specialty crops include apples, avocados, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapefruit, kiwifruit, lemons, oranges, papaya, peaches, pears, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, tomatoes, and watermelons, artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, sweet corn, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, dry onions, green onions, peppers, rhubarb, spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, taro, almonds, pecans, walnuts, beans and mushrooms.
Additional crops may be added later, specifically aquaculture and nursery crops including cut flowers. The Agricultural Marketing Service will assist the Farm Service Agency (FSA) with respect to matters dealing with producers of specialty crops.
Additional details of the CFAP program and the necessary forms for enrollment are available on farmers.gov/cfap. Producers who are new to FSA programs will need to complete paperwork and verify their ownership share or risk exposure, adjusted gross income, wetland and erodible land compliance and their contact information. Producers who participate in Farm Bill programs like the Agricultural Risk Coverage, Price Loss Coverage or Dairy Margin Coverage, will already have these forms on file at the FSA office.
Ohio State University Extension and Ohio FSA will conduct a webinar in the coming days covering the CFAP program in detail. For more information about the webinar, visit farmoffice.osu.edu.
This Week on the
Southern Ohio Farm Show
In this week’s episode of the Southern Ohio Farm Show, there was a weather forecast by Dr. Aaron Wilson, a conversation about the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE), a gardening activity for youth, tips for growing strawberries, and a reason to keep an eye in the sky on clear nights. Next week, we will have another weather outlook, continued discussions about local foods and Coronavirius Food Assistance Program. Tune in next Wednesday at 10 a.m. for another new episode of the Southern Ohio Farm Show via https://go.osu.edu/thesouthernohiofarmshowregistration.
Brooke Beam, Ph.D., is an agriculture and natural resources/community development educator, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, OSU Extension Highland County.
