Update 3/1/21: USDA has announced that the application deadline listed below of February 26 has been eliminated and USDA’s Farm Service Agency will continue to accept applications while the agency undergoes a review of the CFAP program. Interested applicants will have at least an additional 30 days to sign up after any decision is announced. Refer to USDA’s CFAP information page for the most up to date application and deadline information.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by the Farmers’ Legal Action Group.

Last week, Farmers’ Legal Action Group (FLAG) — a nonprofit law center that provides legal services to family farmers — published a new resource focused on changes in eligibility around the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. CFAP is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) program that gives direct payments to farmers affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

FLAG’s most recent guide—a Farmers’ Guide to 2021 CFAP Changes: Contract Farmers and Others—focuses on recent changes to CFAP 1 and CFAP 2 introduced by the 2021 Appropriations Act.

While the main deadlines for both versions of CFAP have passed, USDA’s recent changes to CFAP will impact some farmers, especially contract producers. In particular, contract producers of hogs and poultry are now eligible for CFAP 2.  Because contract producers were previously not eligible to apply for CFAP 2, this is the first time there is a deadline for those producers. The deadline for contract producers to submit a completed CFAP 2 application, including the farmer’s signature, is February 26, 2021.

Other recent changes include making pullets and turfgrass sod eligible sales commodities for CFAP 2. The deadline for applying for CFAP 2 benefits for those commodities is also February 26, 2021. Additional, minor changes to the CFAP programs are also discussed in FLAG’s Guide.

To download FLAG’s Farmers’ Guide to 2021 CFAP Changes: Contract Farmers and Others, visit: http://www.flaginc.org/covid-19-guide/. Additional guides related to COVID-19 relief for farmers are also available at this link.

For a higher level glance at COVID-19 resources, see the recently published 5-page COVID-19 aid overview published by NSAC in partnership with Farm Aid, FLAG, the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, Intertribal Agriculture Council, and RAFI-USA.