(KLZA)-- Nebraska USDA Farm Service Agency is reminding producers of the availability of two programs announced by USDA earlier this year that wrap-up and fill remaining gaps in previous natural disaster and pandemic assistance.

The Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase 2 and the 2020 Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP) are revenue-based assistance programs, and producers who are interested in applying will need to use information from their tax documents or other personal financial records as part of the application process.

The application period is open now through June 2, 2023.

Nebraska FSA is coordinating with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Agricultural Profitability for an educational webinar on these two programs. It is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 2. Registration for the webinar is free and can be found at cap.unl.edu/webinars. FSA officials also briefly will highlight other disaster assistance programs during this webinar, including those designed to address the ongoing drought.

To be eligible for ERP Phase Two, producers must have suffered a decrease in allowable gross revenue in 2020 or 2021 due to necessary expenses related to losses of eligible crops from a qualifying natural disaster event. 

To be eligible for PARP, an agricultural producer must have been in the business of farming during at least part of the 2020 calendar year and had a 15 percent or greater decrease in allowable gross revenue for the 2020 calendar year, as compared to either 2018 or 2019, whichever year the producer selects to use as the baseline year.

     For more information, producers should contact their local USDA service center or reference the ERP Phase Two Fact Sheet, PARP Fact Sheet or the ERP Phase Two-PARP Comparison Fact Sheet.