This week, the USDA is issuing payments to agricultural producers impacted by natural disasters, including $143 million in crop insurance indemnities for Florida producers affected by Hurricane Milton. Approximately $92 million is earmarked for livestock producers nationwide who faced increased supplemental feed costs as a result of forage losses due to the 2022 qualifying drought and wildfire.

Milton-impacted Florida producers’ payments are for those with Federal crop insurance coverage through the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index (HIP-WI) endorsement and the Tropical Storm (TS) option. These crop insurance payments are part of USDA’s broader support to help producers after Hurricane Milton.

The payments for livestock producers are through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) 2022, and are a second round of payments to producers using the remaining funds in the program.

Producers with Federal crop insurance coverage through the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index (HIP-WI) endorsement and the Tropical Storm (TS) option will see payments from their Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs) in the next 30 days.

Producers do not need to file a claim to receive an indemnity payment under HIP-WI. If a county is triggered, the AIP will issue an indemnity payment in the coming weeks. Triggered counties were identified by USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) in Product Management Bulletin 24-069 and will also be available in the county’s actuarial documents. Eligible producers will receive a HIP-WI indemnity payment in addition to any applicable indemnity payments due to them through their underlying crop insurance policy.

Read more on the USDA disaster payments here.