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USDA offers aid to struggling specialty crop farmers

On. Feb. 13, the USDA announced the first step that specialty crop producers can take to apply for funds under the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) Program that will award $1 billion in assistance for specialty crops and sugar will help address market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation, and market losses from foreign competitors engaging in unfair trade practices that impede exports. The USDA first announced that specialty crop producers would be allocated $1 billion when it announced in early December that it was allocating $11 billion to row crop producers under the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program. 

These one-time bridge ASCF payments are based on reported 2025 planted acres.

Specialty crop producers have until March 13, 2026, at 5 p.m. ET to report 2025 acres to USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). Producers may apply for assistance using their login.gov account, which can be linked to their FSA information. Visit www.farmers.gov/account to set up an account.

The ASCF Program is authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and FSA will administer it.

Eligible Specialty Crops

ASCF-eligible specialty crops include: (A) almond, apple, apricot, aronia berry, artichoke, asparagus, avocado (B) banana, bean (snap or green; Lima; dry edible), beet (table), blackberry, blueberry, breadfruit, broccoli (including broccoli raab), Brussels sprouts (C) cabbage (including Chinese), cacao, carrot, cashew, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, cherimoya, cherry, chestnut (for nuts), chive, citrus, coconut, coffee, collards (including kale), cranberry, cucumber, currant (D) date, dry edible beans and peas* (E) edamame, eggplant, endive (F) feijou, fig, filbert (hazelnut) (G) garlic, gooseberry, grape (including raisin), guava (H) horseradish (K) kiwi, kohlrabi (L) leek, lettuce, litchi (M) macadamia, mango, melon (all types), mushroom (cultivated), mustard and other greens (N) nectarine (O) okra, olive, onion, opuntia (P) papaya, parsley, parsnip, passion fruit, pea (garden; English or edible pod; dry edible), peach, pear, pecan, pepper, persimmon, pineapple, pistachio, plum (including prune), pomegranate, potato, pumpkin (Q) quince (R) radish (all types), raspberry, rhubarb, rutabaga (S) salsify, spinach, squash (summer and winter), strawberry, Suriname cherry, sweet corn, sweet potato, Swiss chard (T) taro, tomato (including tomatillo), turnip (W) walnut and watermelon

*Dry edible beans and peas covered by FBA will not be eligible for ASCF.

Commodity-specific payment rates will be released by the end of March. Crop insurance linkage will not be required for the ASCF Program. However, USDA strongly urges producers to take advantage of the new One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) risk management tools to best protect against price risk and volatility in the future.

More information on ASCF is available online at www.fsa.usda.gov/fba or producers can contact their local FSA county office.

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