Farmers can begin enrollment for the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments Program (SURE) for the 2011 crop year on October 22, 2012 and will end June 7, 2013.  The SURE Program authorizes assistance to farmers who suffered crop losses caused by natural disasters occurring through September 30, 2011. 

Indiana Farm Service State Executive Director Julia Wickard says, “Althought the 2008 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2012, the SURE Program is available for 2011 crop year losses.”  She adds, “This is one of the very few FSA Programs available to producers due to the lapse of authorized programs.”

To be eligible for SURE, a farm must have:

• At least a 10-percent production loss on a crop of economic significance
• A policy or plan of insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) for all economically significant crops
• Been physically located in a county that was declared a primary disaster county or contiguous county by the Secretary of Agriculture under a Secretarial Disaster Designation. Without a Secretarial Disaster Designation, individual producers may be eligible if the actual production on the farm is less than 50 percent of the normal production on the farm due to a natural disaster. A “farm” for SURE purposes means the entirety of all crop acreage in all counties that a producer planted or intended to be planted for harvest for normal commercial sale or on-farm livestock feeding, including native and improved grassland intended for haying.

For more information – and to verify eligibility requirements visit www.fsa.usda.gov/sure.