The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (USDA FSA) will provide an estimated $300 million in cost-share assistance payments to cotton farmers through the new Cotton Ginning Cost-Share program in order to expand and maintain the domestic marketing of cotton.
Sign-up for the program begins today and runs through Aug. 5 at the local FSA office. Payments will be processed as applications are received and are expected to begin in July.
“Today’s announcement shows USDA continues to stand with America’s cotton producers and our rural communities,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The Cotton Ginning Cost-Share program will offer meaningful, timely and targeted assistance to cotton growers to help with anticipated ginning costs and to facilitate marketing. The program will provide, on average, approximately 60 percent more assistance per farm and per producer than the 2014 program that provided cotton transition assistance.”
Eligible farmers can receive a one-time cost-share payment, which is based on the farmer’s 2015 cotton acres reported to FSA, multiplied by 40 percent of the average ginning cost for each production region.
According to FSA, the program estimates the costs based on planting of cotton in 2015. FSA offices already have this information for the majority of eligible farmers and the applications will be pre-populated with existing data.
Eligibility requirements for the program are the same as those used for the 2014 Cotton Transition Assistance Program, including a $40,000 per producer payment limit, requirement to be actively engaged in farming, meet conservation compliance and a $900,000 adjusted gross income limit.
The Cotton Ginning Cost-Share program makes payments to cotton farmers for cotton ginning costs, but the benefits of the program will be felt by the broader marketing chain associated with cotton and cottonseed, including cotton gins, cooperatives, marketers and cottonseed crushers and the rural communities that depend on them.
Click here or contact a local FSA county office to learn more about the Cotton Ginning Cost-Share program.