Farm help details still unclear

Aug 10, 2009      Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Joshua Hull

Aug. 10, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Farmers awaiting government assistance for crop losses are one step closer to seeing a payday, but details about the payment program are still up in the air, several agriculture officials said.

The SURE program, approved in the 2008 Farm Bill, has yet to release any of the estimated $3 billion of annual drought relief since the legislation was approved.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that the program should be online by September so USDA officials can start accepting applications for relief funds, Cornyn said in a statement released Thursday.

"I was pleased to hear from Secretary Vilsack that the SURE fund will be finally up and running in September," Cornyn said in the statement. "While this is certainly overdue, seeing as it was signed into law more than a year ago, it will be welcome news to the Texas farmers and ranchers who have suffered through this year's devastating drought -- the worst some parts of Texas have seen in 50 years."

Agriculture losses topped $3.6 billion earlier this year, according to Texas Agri-Life research, and could reach up to $4.1 billion by year's end.

Though losses were greater in areas of South Texas, areas in the High Plains also stand to receive payment for nearly 600,000 acres of cotton lost so far this year and more than 1 million acres lost in 2008, AgriLife officials said.

Before any money can start to flow out of SURE, rules for the program must be solidified by lawmakers who have not yet finalized certain details since the fund was approved, said Steve Verett, executive vice president of Plains Cotton Growers.

Pricing for the 2008 cotton crop was completed at the end of July, Verett said, another step to connecting farmers with the funding available.

"This program could be beneficial to producers from 2008," he said. "They're all hopeful that it will provide some benefits or assistance."

Targeting data used to create the program projected a need for $3 billion each year to be gathered from U.S. tariffs, but the fund won't be limited to that amount if more is needed, Verett said.

"Whatever these people qualify for, they're going to get," he said.

Once the payment plan is established, funding will go to those who lost money in 2008 first, then to those who qualify for assistance in declared emergency counties for 2009, officials with Cornyn's office said.

Following that, others who experienced a crop loss of 50 percent or greater can apply regardless of their location.

Lubbock County, as well as several other High Plains counties, is listed as a primary disaster area along with the heavily damaged South Texas region, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency reports.

Officials at the USDA office in Lubbock said there has been no official discussion about payment plans or when the program would begin.

The payments may be too little too late to build confidence in the SURE program for farmers who have waited since the fund was approved, said Andy Timmons, a farmer in Terry County.

Timmons said he lost 1,800 acres of cotton in 2008 because of dry conditions, and he's expecting to lose 1,500 acres this year as well.

"Honestly, I haven't been counting on anything to come out of it," he said. "It is very frustrating because a lot of us had a lot of losses last year. It was a bad year for everybody."

To comment on this story:

joshua.hull@lubbockonline.com l 766-8795

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AGRICULTURE/Program has not distributed any of its $3 billion for drought relief

First appeared on lubbockonline.com: 9:26 p.m. Sunday.

Newstex ID: KRTB-1067-37092283

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