Source: USDA, 8/7/20
Agricultural
producers in North Carolina can now apply for USDA’s Coronavirus Food
Assistance Program (CFAP) through an online portal, expanding the options
available to producers to apply for this program, which helps offset price
declines and additional marketing costs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is also leveraging commercial document storage
and e-signature solutions to enable producers to work with local Service Center
staff to complete their applications from home. FSA is accepting
applications now through August 28, 2020. “CFAP provides timely financial support to eligible agricultural producers impacted by COVID-19,” said Eddie Woodhouse, State Executive Director for FSA in North Carolina. “I encourage North Carolina farmers to apply immediately through one of the simple processes outlined on farmers.gov.” Producers
can access the new CFAP Application Portal at farmers.gov/cfap,
which outlines all options for signing and submitting CFAP applications to meet
the business needs of individual producers. Producers can also find an
application generator and payment calculator to help identify sales and
inventory records needed to apply and calculate potential payments. Through the portal, producers with secure USDA login credentials—known as eAuthentication—can certify eligible commodities online, digitally sign applications and submit directly to the local USDA Service Center. Producers who do not have an eAuthentication account can learn more and begin the enrollment process at farmers.gov/sign-in. Currently, the digital
application is only available to sole proprietors or single-member business
entities. USDA
Service Centers can also work with producers to complete and securely transmit
digitally signed applications through two commercially available tools: Box and
OneSpan. Producers who are interested in digitally signing their applications
should notify their local USDA Service Centers when calling to discuss the CFAP
application process. You can learn more about these solutions at farmers.gov/mydocs. Producers
in search of one-on-one support with the CFAP application process can call
877-508-8364 to speak directly with a USDA employee ready to offer
assistance. This is a good first step before a producer engages the team at the
FSA county office at their local USDA Service Center. Webinars and Educational Resources for North Carolina Producers North Carolina’s state FSA office is offering commodity-specific webinars on CFAP. The next webinar, covering non-specialty crops, specialty crops, and livestock, is scheduled for July 14 at 1:00 pm. A second webinar for dairy and wool producers will be held in early July. Learn more and register under State Events on the state’s website, fsa.usda.gov/state-offices/North-Carolina. Visit farmers.gov/cfap for
access to recordings of national FSA webinars for specialty crop producers,
non-specialty crop producers, dairy producers and livestock producers. Webinars
also cover FSA programs with producer flexibilities during COVID-19 and a
review of targeted funding for beginning and other underserved farmers and
ranchers in other programs.
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