On December 21, 2024, President Biden signed into law the American Relief Act of 2025, P.L. 118-158, which—in addition to extending the Farm Bill—allocated $30.78 billion to the USDA for farm relief. Of those funds, Congress directed $20 billion to assist farmers who suffered natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 and $10 billion to provide economic assistance to farmers because of expected economic losses incurred in growing 2024 commodities. USDA launched the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) on March 18, 2025, to administer the $10 billion in economic relief. While $8 billion in relief has already been paid out under this program, producers can sign up for ECAP through August 15, 2025.
On July 9, 2025, USDA launched the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) to provide $16 billion in assistance to producers for necessary expenses arising because of losses of revenue, quality or production of crops due to weather related events in 2023 and 2024.[i] USDA published the final rule for SDRP on July 10.
Supplemental Disaster Relief Program Overview
The rule states that SDRP will use approximately $16.09 billion to assist producers who suffered losses of crops, trees, bushes, or vines due to qualifying disaster events. FSA will administer SDRP in two stages.
Stage 1 will use pre-filled application forms for producers with indemnified crop, tree, and vine losses. Data for these losses are already on file with FSA or the Risk Management Agency (RMA) because producers previously received Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) payments or crop insurance payments for these losses.
Stage 2 will provide payments to eligible producers for losses of crops, trees, bushes, and vines that were not indemnified because the producer did not have crop insurance or NAP coverage. Stage 2 will also include producers who incurred losses that were insured with crop insurance or covered by NAP but were not severe enough to trigger a payment. FSA anticipates announcing the details of Stage 2 in a later rule.
The current rule and application process is for Stage 1 payments only.
All SDRP payments will be calculated based on individual crop, tree, bush, and vine losses, rather than a producer's cumulative revenue loss. Revenue loss was the basis for the Emergency Relief Program (ERP).
Eligibility
To be eligible for an SDRP Stage 1 payment, a “producer” must be one of the following:
- Citizen of the United States;
- Resident alien, which for purposes of SDRP means “lawful alien” as defined in7 CFR part 1400;
- Partnership organized under State law consisting solely of citizens of the United States or resident aliens;
- Corporation, limited liability company, or other organizational structure organized under State law consisting solely of citizens of the United States or resident aliens; or
- Indian Tribe or Tribal organization, as defined in section 4(b) of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
To be considered a “producer,” an applicant must share in the risk of producing the eligible crop and be entitled to a share in that crop available for marketing from the farm (or would have shared had the crop been produced). Members of legal entities who do not individually share in the risk of producing the crop and ownership of the crop are not considered producers and are not eligible to apply for SDRP. In those instances, the entity is considered the applicant.
Eligible and Ineligible Losses
Stage 1 provides a streamlined application process for eligible losses during the 2023, 2024, and 2025 crop years, due to qualifying disaster events in the 2023 and 2024 calendar years for which a producer:
- Received an indemnity under a Federal Crop Insurance policy that provided coverage for a loss of crop production, revenue, or quality, or a loss of trees or vines,[ii] OR
- Received a NAP payment for a crop and unit, excluding payments for crops intended for grazing.
Eligible losses include only losses caused by wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought, and related conditions occurring in calendar years 2023 and/or 2024. Drought losses must have occurred in a county rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having a D2 (severe drought) for eight consecutive weeks, D3 (extreme drought) or greater intensity level during the applicable calendar year. Counties eligible for SDRP because of drought in 2023 and 2024.
Payment Amounts
Stage 1 payments are calculated using the loss data on file with FSA or RMA. The Stage 1 payment calculation for a crop and unit depends on the type and level of Federal crop insurance or NAP coverage obtained by the producer. Each coverage level is assigned an SDRP factor, which is used in calculating the payment.
The payment is calculated by taking the expected value of the crop times the SDRP factor. From that amount, the value of production is subtracted, as is the crop insurance (or NAP) indemnity payment minus administrative fees and premiums. A 35 percent payment factor is then applied to all Stage 1 payments to avoid paying out more money than what has been allocated by Congress. USDA will issue Stage 1 payments as applications are processed and approved. If money remains after payments are made, the agency may make a second SDRP payment. For stage 1, the statute provides that the SDRP payment to indemnified producers cannot exceed 90 percent of the loss
Example
The rules provide an example of how a crop insurance SDRP payment is calculated.
- A producer had a crop insurance policy with a coverage level of 65 percent
- The total administrative fee and premium was $3,500.
- Based on the producer's approved yield, acres, and applicable price under their insurance policy, the expected value of their crop was $500,000, and the liability was $325,000 (65 percent of the expected value).
- The producer suffered a crop loss and their production was valued at $250,000, resulting in a gross indemnity of $75,000.
- To calculate the producer's Stage 1 payment, RMA performs the same calculation that was used to calculate the indemnity based on their loss procedures but uses $437,500 (the SDRP factor of 87.5 percent multiplied by the expected value) instead of the liability
- The value of production ($250,000) is subtracted from $437,500 equaling $187,500.
- From that amount, RMA subtracts the net indemnity of $71,500 ($75,000 minus $3,500), resulting in a calculated Stage 1 payment of $116,000
- A 35 percent payment factor is then applied to yield a $40,600 payment.
$500,000 (expected value) × 87.5% (SDRP factor) = $437,500
$437,500−$250,000 (value of production)−$71,500 (net indemnity) = $116,000 (SDRP payment prior to final payment factor and applicable reductions)
$116,000 × .35 = $40,600
For consistency throughout Stage 1, USDA will use the same approach for calculating payments for NAP-covered losses as they use for insured losses.
Payment Limitations
Two payment limitations apply to SDRP—one payment limitation for specialty and high value crops combined, and a second payment limitation for other crops that are not included in the definitions of “specialty crop” or “high value crop.” Specialty crops include fruits, tree nuts, vegetables, culinary herbs and spices, medicinal plants, and nursery, floriculture, and horticulture crops.
Note: Although the OBBBA recently passed by Congress changed the rules for payment limitations for future programs, the SDRP is subject to payment limitations rules in place when the American Relief Act was passed. As such, attribution rules are different for general partnerships than for LLCs and S corporations.
The SDRP payment limitation is separate from the payment limitation for other programs. Separate payment limitations apply for each program year. This means that other government program payments do not count toward the SDRP payment limitation. Payments under both Stage 1 and Stage 2 are combined for the purpose of applying payment limitations. Therefore, producers who receive the maximum payment amount for a crop year under Stage 1are not eligible to receive an additional payment for losses under Stage 2 for the same crop year.
2023 SDRP (Stage 1 and 2) payments are limited to $125,000 if average adjusted gross farm income (AGI) is less than 75 percent of average AGI for tax years 2019, 2020, and 2021. 2024 SDRP payments (Stage 1 and Stage 2 combined) are limited to $125,000 if adjusted gross farm income is less than 75 percent of average AGI for tax years 2020, 2021, and 2022. For those with 75 percent of average AGI derived from farming, ranching, or forestry (as certified by a CPA or attorney), the payment limit increases to $900,000 for each program year for specialty and high value crops and $250,000 for each program year for all other crops.
Note: The payment limitations calculations and rules are like those for ERP and ELPR, not like those for the recent ECAP program, which used average gross farm income.
If the average AGI derived from the items listed in the definition of “income derived from farming, ranching, and forestry operations” (7 CFR 760.2202) is at least 66.66 percent of the average adjusted gross income of the person or legal entity, then the average adjusted gross farm income may also take into consideration income or benefits derived from the sale, trade, or other disposition of equipment to conduct farm, ranch, or forestry operations, and the provision of production inputs and production services to farmers, ranchers, foresters, and farm operations.
Note: While the OBBBA defines farm income to include the sale of agricultural equipment owned by the producer or entity, that new definition does not apply to this program that was authorized last year.
To request the increased payment limitation, participants must file Form FSA-510 to certify that their average adjusted gross farm income is at least 75 percent of their average AGI and a certification from a licensed CPA or attorney that the participant meets the requirements.
Insurance Coverage Requirement
Producers who receive SDRP payments are required to purchase federal crop insurance or NAP coverage for the next two crop years at the 60 percent coverage level or higher.
Adjusted Gross Income Limit
Producers with an average AGI greater than $900,000 are eligible to participate in SDRP. Those with an average AGI greater than $900,000, however, are not eligible to participate in NAP. To reconcile this restriction, SDRP participants may meet the purchase requirement by purchasing WFRP coverage, if eligible, or they may apply for NAP coverage and pay the applicable service fee and premium despite their ineligibility for a NAP payment.
Application Process
For Stage 1, producers should receive a pre-filled application in the mail. If so, they can review the data, sign it, and return to their FSA county office using one of the following methods:
- In-person
- Electronically using Box and One-span
- Fax
Those who did not receive an application can visit a local FSA county office to request one. In addition to submitting the FSA-526, Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) Stage 1 Application, the producer must have the following forms on file:
- Form AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet
- Form CCC-902, Farm Operating Plan for an individual or legal entity
- Form CCC-901, Member Information for Legal Entities (if applicable)
- Form FSA-510, Request for an Exception to the $125,000 Payment Limitation for Certain Programs (if applicable)
- SF-3881, Direct Deposit
- AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland Conservation (WC) Certification
[i] In May, USDA had launched the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) for Drought and Wildfire. A second ELRP for flooding is scheduled to launch in August.
[ii] The following policies are ineligible: policies for forage seeding, policies for crops with an intended use of grazing, livestock policies, Controlled Environment policies, Margin Protection Plan policies, banana plants insured under the Hawaii Tropical Trees provisions, supplemental policy endorsements based on county- or area-level losses when purchased with a base policy, Cottonseed Endorsements; and policies issued in Puerto Rico.