Struggling to Understand the Disaster Relief and Payment Assistance Programs?

We understand.  There are a number of disaster relief and payment assistance programs either available or will be available, and it’s challenging to keep them straight. They all have similar sounding acronyms and news about them develop fast. So, what are all the different payment programs to farmers that have been issued recently and which ones are still coming? Let’s break down the largest ones so you can determine what programs you may be eligible for:

What’s Still Coming

Farm Bridge Assistance (FBA):

• Amount: $12 Billion
• Will You Need to Apply? Yes
• Application Details: USDA will issue pre-filled applications that will then need to be submitted by you to your local FSA office. More details will be announced by USDA.
• Application Requirements: Acreage Reporting is due on Dec 19^th, 2025. This is not Production Reporting and FBA will be dictated by planted acres. At the end of Dec, USDA will announce commodity-specific payment rates.
• Payment Date: No official date of payment has been announced yet. Secretary Rollins said they expect it to be distributed by February 28, 2026.

FBA was announced on Dec 8^th. FBA will provide one time bridge payments to American farmers in response to trade market disruptions and increased production costs impacting farmers.

Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) Stage 2:

• Amount: ~$10 billion remaining (of $16 billion program total)
• Will You Need to Apply? Yes
• Application Deadline: April 30^th, 2026.
• Payment Date: No official date of payment has been announced

SDRP Stage 2 will provide additional financial relief to farmers who experienced shallow or non-indemnified losses during the 2023 or 2024 calendar years. Farmers need to directly apply with their local FSA office. Read more about the application.

What’s Already Been Paid

Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) Stage 1:

• Amount: ~6 billion currently paid (of $16 billion program total)
• Payment Date: Payments started August 2025

SDRP Stage 1 provided payments to farmers who experienced revenue, quality or production losses to crops due to disaster events in calendar years 2023 and 2024.

Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) Round 1:

• Amount: ~$8 billion (of $10 billion program total)
• Payment Date:Payments started late June 2025

ECAP Round 1 provided per-acre economic assistance for 2024 planted and prevent-plant acres to help offset the increased input costs and falling commodity prices.

Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) Round 2:

• Amount: ~$2 billion (of $10 billion program total)
• Payment Date:Payments started September 2025

ECAP Round 2 was a true-up payment to farmers who received the first payment. This payment was 14% more to fully exhaust the allocated funds.

Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP):

• Amount: $2 billion
• Payment Date:Payments started September 2025

ELRP was emergency relief payments to livestock producers suffering losses due to drought, wildfires, or flooding in calendar years 2023 and 2024. A second payment round will be announced if money is left over after first payments.

 There are other programs that are not included on this list that affect more specific crops or certain areas, such as the New England and Pacific Disaster Bloc Grant. Reach out to your PRM Risk Management Advisor to address your questions and learn how these programs affect your operation.