Emergency Commodity Assistance (ECAP)

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) is issuing this notice announcing the funding for ECAP, which will provide economic assistance payments to eligible producers of eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year. ECAP is a new FSA program authorized by the American Relief Act, 2025. This notice also announces the eligibility (commodities, acres, producers, and losses), payment calculations, payment limitations, and how to apply (pre-filled application and any required adjustments) for ECAP.

ECAP will use up to $10 billion to issue 1-time economic assistance payments to eligible producers of eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year. These payments are intended to help farmers cope with losses from natural disasters and a difficult farm economy, and will help preserve family farms and ranches across the country while also continuing to ensure food and agricultural security for our nation.

One-time, per-acre direct payment. No match, no cost-share, nothing to repay.

How it is calculated: "ECAP assistance will be calculated using a flat payment rate for the eligible commodity multiplied by the eligible reported acres." Rates are per acre and differ by commodity; FSA publishes the commodity rate table and an online ECAP payment calculator. "Payments are based on acreage not production. For acres reported as prevented planted, ECAP will be limited to 50 percent of reported acres."

Payments were pro-rated, so expect less than the headline rate: "Initial ECAP payments will be factored by 85 percent to ensure total program payments do not exceed available funding. FSA is issuing a second payment equal to 14% of the gross ECAP payment to eligible producers, making the final payment factor 99%."

Payment limitation per person or legal entity: "$125,000, if less than 75 percent of the average gross income of the person or legal entity for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 tax years is derived from farming, ranching, or forestry activities; and $250,000, if not less than 75 percent...". Filing form CCC-943 is what establishes the higher limit. "These payment limitations are separate from the payment limitations that apply to other programs."

Scale and status: "USDA's Farm Service Agency is issuing up to $10 billion in direct payments" for the 2024 crop year, and "More than $8 billion in payments have been paid out to date." One application covered a producer's entire operation nationwide. Sign-up closed August 15, 2025 — this is a closed, one-time 2024-crop-year program.

FSA will generate pre-filled ECAP applications for producers based on their acreage of eligible commodities on FSA-578. Beginning in late-March 2025, FSA will mail those pre-filled applications to producers who had reported their 2024 crop year acreage of eligible commodities by March 10, 2025. Producers with a level 2 eAuthentication account or a login.gov account may complete their application electronically by visiting https://www.fsa.usda.gov/​ecap.

Applicants must submit the FSA-63 ECAP, Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) Application, electronically or to their local FSA county office [9] by August 15, 2025. Applicants will submit one application that includes all eligible acreage in all counties nationwide.

To apply for ECAP, an applicant must have also reported their planted and prevented planted acreage of eligible commodities to FSA on FSA-578 and filed a notice of loss for acres that were prevented from being planted on CCC-576, if applicable. FSA will not accept applications on which producers have manually entered acreage data except in situations where adjustment of eligible acres is required as explained in the Eligible Acreage section of this document.

Producers who had not reported planted and prevented planted acreage on FSA-578 and filed a notice of loss for prevented planted acreage using CCC-576 by March 10, 2025, must submit those forms as described in the Eligible Acreage section of this document by August 15, 2025. Once submitted, FSA will generate a pre-filled ECAP application for the producer to complete and sign.

Applicants must also submit the following eligibility forms to FSA by August 17, 2026, if not already on file with FSA for the 2024 program year:

• AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet, for new applicants and applicants who need to update their information;

• CCC-901, Member Information for Legal Entities, if applicable;

• CCC-902E, Farm Operating Plan for an Entity; if applicable;

• CCC-902I, Farm Operating Plan for an Individual, if applicable;

• CCC-943, 75% of Average Gross Income from Farming, Ranching, or Forestry Certification, for producers and members of legal entities who are requesting an increase to the payment limitation;

• AD-1026 Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland Conservation (WC) Certification, for the producer and affiliated persons, as specified in7 CFR 12.8; and

• SF-3881, ACH Vendor/Miscellaneous Payment Enrollment Form.[10] 

Eligible Producers (PDF)