Ag News
Georgia Hurricane Helene Block Grant funding agreements being sent to traditional commodity producers
Posted on Oct 14, 2026 at 11:45 AM
On Oct. 14, the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) announced that award amounts for all traditional agricultural commodities eligible for the Georgia Hurricane Helene Block Grant payments have been calculated, and funding agreements are being sent to applicants.
“I’m encouraging applicants to be on the lookout and submit their signed contracts as quickly as possible, so we can begin distributing relief funds,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper. “Our team has invested thousands of hours to individually review and cure each application to ensure eligible producers get 100% of what they’re entitled to because that is the level of service Georgia farmers deserve. Our department will continue to support Georgia farm families throughout every step of their road to recovery.”
The GDA is sending agreements via email to approved applicants detailing their award amounts and explaining how funding decisions were calculated. The agreements will cover Hurricane Helene-related losses involving infrastructure, poultry, beef cattle, dairy cattle, milk loss, dairy feed loss, pecans, blueberries, citrus, nursery operations, plasticulture, and bare-ground practices.
Timber applications, which are more complex in nature, remain under review as they require additional time for thorough evaluation, the GDA said. Recognizing the importance of this assistance to Georgia’s timber producers, the GDA has redirected its resources to prioritize the review and processing of these applications, with the goal of reaching a resolution as quickly as possible. Harper said the department would send out award notifications to timber producer soon, and encouraged timber producers to monitor their email for the award notifications.
“If you put in an application on the ag side and on the timber side, be waiting for that email to come with your contract,” Harper told the Georgia Farm Monitor on Oct. 14. “As soon as you sign those contracts and get them back to us, we’ll be getting those funds out to you.”
The USDA awarded Georgia $531.236 million to be dispersed to farmers, ranchers and timber producers who did not receive compensation for losses due to Hurricane Helene through pre-existing USDA programs. Visit https://gfb.ag/hhblockgrants to read more about the program.
Behind the process
Harper gave a status update on Hurricane Helene Block Grants at the GFB Commodity Conference in August. Harper said staff from the GDA and Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) have been working diligently to review the almost 5,900 applications that were received by the May 11 deadline.
After initial reviews of all the applications, Harper said a little more than 4,200 applications were deemed eligible for full review. About 1,700 applications were disqualified because they were incomplete (more than 1,300), found to be fraudulent, or were duplicate applications. Harper said a little over 3,200 of the total applications were for timber losses; about 1,400 applications were for agriculture related losses; and about 630 of the total applications reported both ag and timber losses.
“Based on what our review team has been working through at this time, applicants have requested a little over $900 million in potential payout. We’ve only received a little over $531 million,” Harper said when speaking to GFB members in August. “The way we’re working to do this is basically through proration. Once all of the reviews are completed and the final total of the approved eligible requests are known, every payment will be adjusted by the same factor, so every eligible applicant receives the same proportional share of what they were approved for based on the available funding. The final requested total will continue to shift as reviews are done, which is part of why final payments can’t be determined until the review process is completed. I want to note that we [GDA] asked the USDA for over $1 billion in block grants. Unfortunately, there was only enough funds to cover us for a little over $531 million.”
The team reviewing the block grant applications consists of about 35 members, Harper said, who are either GDA or GFC employees or contractors. All team members have agriculture, forestry and disaster assistance review backgrounds.
Harper said that GDA and GFC law enforcement staff are looking into any legal or criminal action that may be taken against individuals who filed fraudulent applications.
According to the GDA website, block grant applicants will be notified if they meet all eligibility requirements and asked to sign an agreement with an award amount. Payment amounts will not be finalized until all applications reach final review. The schedule for distributing payments to eligible producers will be announced at a later date. Visit www.gfb.ag/hhblockgrantsreview for the latest information.
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