Oct 21, 2019North Dakota senator pushes USDA to focus on weather relief for farmers
On Oct. 17, Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota encouraged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to focus efforts on relief for producers impacted by weather-related disasters impacting numerous crops across the country, including the potato industry.
During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill, Senator Hoeven also questioned Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Steve Censky on whether USDA has the resources necessary to assist producers, particularly in the WHIP+ program. The full exchange is below:
Senator John Hoeven (R-ND): Let’s talk about WHIP+ for a minute. Our farmers are up against it due to freak weather. Talk about how we can help those farmers with the WHIP+ program? Do you have enough money?
Deputy Secretary Censky: This is something that is very important moving forward. We’re moving forward as you know. In terms of how a producer or county qualifies, those determinations, the county needs to be in a disaster area declared by the President. This requires at least a 30% loss of a crop in the county. That makes producers in that county eligible. I know our farm service agency in North Dakota is working to assess the damage of the heavy snowstorm that hit and has impacted producers there. We look forward to receiving information on that in the coming days.
Sen. Hoeven: It also covers producers in non-disaster counties on a case-by-case basis, correct?
Censky: Producers, even if they’re adjoining or in a contiguous county that is not declared but they’ve also been impacted, they can go into their county FSA office and make that application and the county committee will consider that.
— National Potato Council
