The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has extended the application deadline for the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) to Sept. 30, 2026, giving producers more time to apply for assistance for qualifying natural disaster losses in calendar years 2023 and 2024.

The extension applies to both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the program. Stage 1 covers indemnified (e.g. insured) losses, while Stage 2 provides assistance for non-indemnified (e.g. shallow), uncovered and quality losses.

In addition to the application extension:

• Applicants will now be allowed to use verifiable and reliable documentation to demonstrate quality-related discounts on production impacted by natural disasters. Verifiable documentation must be dated within 30 days of harvest.
• FSA updated policy for crops with a final use different from the intended use (secondary use) and for crops not sold in a recognized market (salvage value). This is intended to address quality-related economic impacts for crops that were intended for fresh but sold as processed or could not be sold in a recognized market.
• FSA clarified that for Stage 1 quality losses, some applications were not generated because the pre-quality adjusted production information used to calculate the Quality Loss Percentage was unavailable. Although this information will not be available before the September 30 deadline, impacted producers must still file by then; once FSA receives missing production data, they will be notified and provided with adequate time to review and re-sign their applications.

WG encourages all members who may be eligible to contact their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) county office for more information or assistance with an application.

For more information on SDRP, visit fsa.usda.gov/sdrp. To read the full press release from the Farm Service Agency, click here.