Farming is a type of business that involves growing plants, raising animals and selling them as meat or produce. It is considered a vital step in the development of sedentary human civilization.
When starting a farm, farmers should be prepared to do market research and match their product to the customer base. Keeping track of finances can also be difficult, but a number of apps are available to help farmers manage their budgets.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) held a webinar recently to provide guidance for farmers attempting to apply for the Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP) ahead of the July 14 deadline. The program was originally slated to end its enrollment window on June 2, but USDA decided to push the deadline further out.
PARP is a program intended to help producers impacted by the pandemic who suffered at least 15% revenue loss in 2020. Payments are based on eligible farmers’ revenue in 2020 as compared to 2018 or 2019, where applicable. A list of the six main documents needed to complete the application is available in a fact sheet from USDA.
To become eligible, producers must have been farming during the 2020 calendar year and suffered revenue loss. If a producer was not active in 2018 or 2019, the expected allowable gross income for 2020 is the basis for PARP assistance. The maximum amount a person or entity can receive is $125,000, and a joint operation cannot receive more than $125,000 per person.
On June 8, USDA and members of the National Farm Income Tax Extension Committee held a webinar to illustrate how interested producers can apply to USDA for approval. The full webinar will be posted on the farmers.gov website, with more than an hour of information and a detailed walkthrough by JC Hobbs, the assistant extension specialist at Oklahoma State University’s Agriculture Economics Department.
Hobbs went through the step-by-step process of filling out the Farm Service Agency (FSA)-1122 application and answered questions from the crowd of online viewers.
Applications can be completed at the nearest FSA office or USDA service center.
Source: agriculture.com
