The Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP) can provide shellfish growers with catastrophic coverage for losses due to natural disasters. The deadline to sign-up for these programs and provide an acreage report is September 30 for coverage of crop year 2024. Since this date falls on a weekend, the deadline is extended to October 2. Both programs are serviced by your local USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) office. To find your county office, go to https://www.fsa.usda.gov/state-offices/Florida/index. See fact sheets for NAP and ELAP for more information.
For NAP, clam growers are required to maintain a monthly inventory. Monthly inventory records are to be kept up to date and submitted to the FSA county office by the 15th of each month for the prior month. Failure to provide accurate monthly inventories will result in ineligibility for NAP payments. Seed receipts must also be submitted with the initial beginning inventory report and with monthly reports when new seed is planted.
To assist with this requirement, Excel worksheets were developed which allow clam growers to enter their standing crop inventory (a “snapshot” of what is on the lease) at the beginning of the crop year (October 1). From there, growers can update their inventory monthly by entering information on nursery seed planted, seed transferred to growout, and harvests. Each worksheet provides a summary of the total number of bags and clams on the lease; this information is automatically carried over to next month’s worksheet. The Excel file can be emailed to the county FSA office or the worksheet can be printed and mailed.
These forms can be used for the FSA NAP program for the monthly inventory/acreage reports:
NAP Clam Inventory Workbook-CY2024.xlsx
NAP Clam Monthly Report-CY2024.pdf
Filing Notice of Loss: Shellfish growers impacted by Hurricane Idalia need to report losses within 72 hours of when the loss is noticed for NAP followed by a written notice of loss within 15 days. For ELAP, losses must be reported within 30 days of loss becoming apparent.
Links:
https://shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/USDA-FSA-NAP-Fact-Sheet.pdf
https://shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/USDA-FSA-ELAP-Aquaculture-factsheet-2.pdf
