http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/12/15/news/agriculture/ag1.txt

FSA offers payments for 2001 losses

Published December 15, 2004

Klamath Project farmers may be eligible for program

By TODD KEPPLE

Farmers in the Klamath Reclamation Project who suffered crop losses in 2001 may be eligible for relief payments under the Farm Service Agency's Crop Disaster Program.

Producers may be eligible for payments even if they received payments from the Bureau of Reclamation for the season in which water was cut off for most of the project.

A special "late-filed signup" for the Crop Disaster Program is open until Jan. 31, 2005.

"The Farm Service Agency has approved a waiver of eligibility for producers in the Klamath Basin who were excluded from the CDP payments because they had received compensation under the Klamath Basin Water Conservation Program," said Joseph Ulics, executive director for the Siskiyou County FSA.

The Bureau of Reclamation's Water Conservation Program offered payments of $129 per acre to Project farmers who were not able to produce crops.

Under the Farm Service Agency's Crop Disaster Program, producers who suffered at least at 35 percent crop loss in 2001 can receive payments of 50 percent of the established price for crops that were covered by crop insurance.

Payments may also be made at 50 percent of the established price for crops for which no insurance was available, or 45 percent of the price for crops that could have been insured but were not.

Payments may also be available for quality losses for certain crops.

Jennifer Simon, executive director of the Farm Service Agency in Klamath County, said as many as 1,000 producers in the Klamath Project may be eligible for payments ranging from $5,000 to the maximum payment of $80,000.

Crops planted after April 6, 2001, will be eligible for the Crop Disaster Program. Payments for such crops will be calculated on a non-irrigated yield, unless the crops received irrigation.

Crops planted before April 6, 2001, will be considered irrigated crops if that is the parcel's history, and payments will be based on an irrigated yield.

April 6 was the date when the federal government announced that no irrigation water would be available in the Klamath Reclamation Project because of a severe drought and the need to conserve water for threatened and endangered fish.

Producers who received CDP payments for 2002 may file for the 2001 crop year. They could receive payment for the greater loss.

Several other rules and restrictions apply to the late-filed signup. For more information call the Farm Service Agency at 883-6924, ext. 2, in Klamath Falls; (530) 842-6123, ext. 2 in Yreka; or (530) 233-4391 in Alturas.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to:
 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml