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.

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)