Stage two of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) is moving into the initial stages of implementation, USDA officials announced during a media briefing on Monday.
In what USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen A. Vaden described as the “first major action” since the end of the government shutdown, Stage two of SDRP is designed to provide financial relief to farmers who suffered losses from natural disasters that occurred in calendar years 2023 and/or 2024.
While Stage one of SDRP focused on crop losses for major commodity crops covered under crop insurance, Vaden said Stage two of the program brings in more specialty crops.
“SDRP Stage two is focused on those who suffered “shallow, non-indemnified losses” -- losses for which they either didn’t have crop insurance or couldn’t purchase crop insurance,” he said. “So that’s going to bring in ... a lot of your specialty crop producers in places like California, Arizona, those points out West who were unable to participate in Stage one.”
The aid is also available to eligible producers participating in the Milk Loss Program and the On-Farm Storage Loss Program.
“This will provide much-needed cash flow as we head into calendar year 2026 and the new crop cycle,” Vaden said.
Between the two stages of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, USDA will deliver more than $16 billion in Congressionally approved assistance to America’s farmers, he added.
Eligible producers will be able to receive payments from both Stage one and Stage two, if applicable, and for one or both years, depending on their losses.
FSA county offices will begin accepting SDRP Stage two applications on Nov. 24, 2025. Producers have until April 30, 2026, to apply for both Stage one and Stage two assistance. The timing for payments to roll out to farmers was not addressed, though media asked for that information.
Kinds Of Losses Stage Two Will Cover
The program covers losses from disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, floods, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze events, smoke exposure, excessive moisture and qualifying drought.
For the latter, USDA defined that as “a D2 drought for eight weeks, or D3 or more severe drought for any period of time and related conditions that occurred in calendar year 2023 and 2024.” A list of counties that are eligible for SDRP due to drought for 2023 and 2024 is available here.
This marks the first time that USDA disaster assistance will cover the so-called shallow losses, according to Richard Fordyce, a Missouri farmer and Under Secretary for USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) Mission Area.
“If a producer suffered a loss that did not exceed their crop insurance deductible, they will now be indemnified for their loss and receive the same crop insurance premium and fee refund as producers did in SDRP one. This addresses a clear gap in previous disaster assistance programs,” Fordyce said.
He noted that what is different from previous iterations of aid is there will be no progressive factoring. “Hurricanes, derechos and wildfires do not bias producers based on their race or ethnicity. So the assistance provided by USDA should not, either,” he said. “The quality loss component of SDRP will cover the decrease in value based on discounts due to the physical condition of the crop, as well as decline in nutritional value of forage crops.”
Payments to eligible producers will be limited to $125,000 per calendar year, or $250,000 per calendar year if at least 75% of their adjusted gross income is derived from farming, ranching or forestry. Farmers that grow high value or specialty crops can receive up to $900,000 per calendar year if crop production accounts for at least 75% of their adjusted gross income.
Fordyce noted that FSA is establishing block grants with four states — Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, and Massachusetts — to cover crop losses there. Farmers with losses on land physically located in these states are not eligible for SDRP program payments.
However, farmers in those states will be able to participate in the On-Farm Stored Commodity Loss Program and the Milk Loss Program.
For Stage Two program details, including fact sheets, please visit fsa.usda.gov/sdrp.
On-Farm Stored Commodities And Milk Loss Programs
The Milk Loss Program provides up to $1.65 million in payments to eligible dairy operations for milk that was dumped or removed without compensation from the commercial milk market because of a qualifying natural disaster event in 2023 and/or 2024.
“The Milk Loss Program provides relief to producers who were forced to dump milk or remove it from the commercial market due to adverse weather, while the On-Farm Stored Commodity Loss Program covers losses of eligible harvested commodities in storage,” Fordyce explained.
Producers who suffered losses of eligible harvested commodities while stored in on-farm structures in 2023 and/or 2024 due to a qualifying natural disaster event may be eligible for assistance through the On-Farm Stored Commodity Loss Program, which provides for up to $5 million to impacted producers.
The enrollment period to apply for milk and on-farm stored commodity losses is Nov. 24, 2025, through Jan. 23, 2026. Information and fact sheets for both programs are available online at milk loss and on-farm stored commodity losses.
No Trade Aid For 2025 Announced
During a question-and-answer period, one of the media asked for the status of any type of relief program that might be announced for calendar year 2025.
That question was met with a protracted response from Vaden, placing the blame for no action by USDA and the Trump administration for this calendar year squarely on Democrats.
“This department only woke back up on Thursday of last week. We spent the past 45 days needlessly with more than half of our employees sitting at home unable to work on the important business the department had before it,” Vaden said.
“Rest assured that the undersecretary and his team are very busy crunching those numbers now, and we’ll let you know when we have an announcement. But we would have had an announcement much earlier, if we’d been open over the past 45 days, and unfortunately now, thanks to the minority in Congress, we’re playing catch up,” he added.
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