The U.S. Department of Agriculture is issuing up to $10 billion directly to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program for the 2024 crop year. Administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency, ECAP will help agricultural producers mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity prices.

“Producers are facing higher costs and market uncertainty, and the Trump Administration is ensuring they get the support they need without delay,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. “With clear direction from Congress, USDA has prioritized streamlining the process and accelerating these payments ahead of schedule, ensuring farmers have the resources necessary to manage rising expenses and secure financing for next season.”

Authorized by the American Relief Act, these economic relief payments are based on planted and prevent planted crop acres for eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year. To streamline and simplify the delivery of ECAP, FSA will begin sending pre-filled applications to producers who submitted acreage reports to FSA for 2024 eligible ECAP commodities soon after the signup period opened on March 19. Producers do not have to wait for their pre-filled ECAP application to apply. They can visit fsa.usda.gov/ecap to apply using a login.gov account or contact their local FSA office to request an application once the signup period opens.

To learn more about FSA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center. Producers can also prepare maps for acreage reporting as well as manage farm loans and view other farm records data and customer information by logging into their farmers.gov account.