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West Virginia State Programs

State Executive Director

John D. Perdue

John D. Perdue

Read John D. Perdue'

State Office Address

1550 Earl L Core Rd.
Morgantown, WV 26505
(304) 284-4800
(855) 854-3076

FSA Administered Programs

The Down Payment Loan Program can be used to finance up to 45% of the purchase price of a farm by eligible beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers at a reduced interest rate (currently 1.5%). A 5% down payment is required by applicant with the balance of purchase price financed by a 3rd party.

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

CRP provides a voluntary program to agricultural producers to help them safeguard environmentally sensitive land. Producers enrolled in CRP plant long-term, resource-conserving covers to improve the quality of water, control soil erosion, and enhance wildlife habitat. In return, CCC provides participants rental payments and cost-share assistance. Contract duration is between 10 and 15 years.

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)

As the name implies, this program is an enhanced version of the very successful Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). CREP is a special conservation program that allows extra incentives and payments for eligible producers. CREP is a Federal-State conservation partnership program that targets significant environmental effects related to Agriculture. CREP priority areas include the drainages of the Cheat River, Kanawha River, Little Kanawha River, Monongahela River, Potomac River, and Ohio River.

Direct Farm Ownership Loan

A loan made to eligible applicants to purchase, enlarge, or make capital improvements to family farms, or to promote soil and water conservation and protection. Maximum loan amount is $300,000. A percentage of direct farm ownership loan funds is targeted for beginning farmers and underserved applicants as mandated by sections 346 and 355 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (Pub. L. 87-128) (CONACT) (7 U.S.C. 1994 and 7 U.S.C. 2003), respectively. The statutory authority for direct farm ownership loans is section 302 of the CONACT (7 U.S.C. 1922).

Direct Operating Loan

A loan made to an eligible applicant to assist with the financial costs of operating a farm. Maximum loan amount is $300,000. A percentage of direct operating loan funds is targeted for beginning farmers and underserved as mandated sections 346 and 355 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (Pub. L. 87-128) (CONACT) (7 U.S.C. 1994 and 7 U.S.C. 2003), respectively. The statutory authority for direct operating loans is section 311 of the CONACT (7 U.S.C. 1911).

Microloans

Microloans are direct operating and farm ownership loans with a shortened application process and reduced paperwork designed to meet the needs of smaller, non-traditional, and niche type operations. Operating loan funds can be used for livestock and equipment purchases as well as to pay most farm operating expenses. Farm ownership can be used to purchase or improve real estate. Maximum microloan amount is $50,000.00.

Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)

ECP provides emergency funding for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by wind erosion, floods, hurricanes, or other natural disasters, and for carrying out emergency water conservation measures during periods of severe drought. The natural disaster must create new conservation problems, which, if not treated, would: impair or endanger the land; materially affect the productive capacity of the land; represent unusual damage which is not the type likely to recur frequently in the same area; and be so costly to repair that Federal assistance is, or will be, required to return the land to productive agricultural use.

Emergency Farm Loans 

Loans are available to eligible applicants who have incurred substantial financial losses from a disaster. Maximum outstanding loan amount is $500,000. The statutory authority for emergency loans is section 321 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (Pub. L. 87-128) (7 U.S.C. 1961).

Farm Storage Facility Loan Program (FSFL)

USDA provides low-interest financing for producers to build or upgrade farm storage and handling facilities. Commodities covered under this storage program are corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, oats, wheat, or minor oilseeds harvested as grain. Also corn, grain sorghum, oats, wheat, or barley harvested as other-than-whole grain. Other commodities include hay, pulse crops, honey, fruits & vegetable cold storage, floriculture, maple sap, milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, eggs, meat/poultry, and aquaculture. CCC's loan is limited to 85 percent of the net cost of the eligible storage facility and permanent drying and handling equipment (subject to the applicant's storage needs test). Loan term is 7 to 10 years, depending on the loan amount. Loan will not be disbursed until the facility has been erected and inspected.

Guaranteed Farm Ownership Loan

A loan made by another lender and guaranteed by FSA to eligible applicants to purchase, enlarge, or make capital improvements to family farms, or to promote soil and water conservation and protection. Maximum loan amount is $1,399,000 (for FY 2016). A percentage of guaranteed farm ownership loan funds is targeted for beginning farmers as mandated by sections 346 and 355 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (CONACT) (Pub. L. 87-128) (7 U.S.C. 1994 and 7 U.S.C. 2003), respectively. The statutory authority for guaranteed farm ownership loans is section 302 of the CONACT (7 U.S.C. 1922).

Guaranteed Operating Loan

A loan made by another lender and guaranteed by FSA to an eligible applicant to assist with the financial costs of operating a farm. Maximum loan amount is $1,399,000 (for FY 2016). A percentage of guaranteed operating loan funds is targeted for beginning farmers as mandated sections 346 and 355 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (Pub. L. 87-128) (CONACT) (7 U.S.C. 1994 and 7 U.S.C. 2003), respectively. The statutory authority for guaranteed operating loans is Section 311 of the CONACT (7 U.S.C. 1941).

Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program

The Agriculture Act of 2014 extends the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC) from Oct. 1, 2013, through the earlier of the date on which the Secretary certifies that the Dairy Margin Protection Program is operational or Sept. 1, 2014. The FSA MILC Program supports the dairy industry by providing direct counter-cyclical style payments to milk producers on a monthly basis when the Boston Federal Milk Marketing Order Class I price for fluid milk falls below the benchmark of $16.94 per hundredweight (cwt). FSA determines the per hundredweight payment rate for the applicable month by subtracting the Boston Class I price for that month from the $16.94 MILC payment trigger price as adjusted for feed costs, and multiplying the difference by 45 percent. The MILC payment trigger price of $16.94 is adjusted upward when the National Average Dairy Feed Ration Cost for a month is greater than $7.35 per cwt.

Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP)

USDA's Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) provides financial assistance to producers of noninsurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory or prevented planting occur due to natural disasters.

An eligible producer is a landowner, tenant or sharecropper who shares in the risk of producing an eligible crop.

To be eligible for NAP, crops must be noninsurable and commercially-produced agricultural commodity crops for which the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance is not available, and must be crops grown for food; crops planted and grown for livestock consumption, including, but not limited to grain and forage crops, including native forage; crops grown for fiber, such as cotton and flax (except for trees); crops grown in a controlled environment, such as mushrooms and floriculture; specialty crops, such as honey and maple sap; value loss crops, such as aquaculture, Christmas trees, ginseng, ornamental nursery, and turfgrass sod; and seed crops where the propagation stock is produced for sale as seed stock for other eligible NAP crop production.

Please contact a crop insurance agent if you have questions regarding insurability of a crop in your county. For further information on whether a crop is eligible for NAP coverage, please contact your local FSA office.

Nonrecourse Marketing Assistance Loan and Loan Deficiency Payment (LDP) Program

The 2014 Farm Bill authorizes nonrecourse marketing assistance loans (MALs) and loan deficiency payment (LDPs) for the 2014 - 2018 crops of wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, soybeans, oilseeds (including sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, crambe and sesame seed), dry peas, lentils, small chickpeas, graded and nongraded wool, mohair, honey, and unshorn pelts. Provisions are mostly unchanged from the 2008 Farm Bill, except marketing loan gains and loan deficiency payments are subject to payment limitations.

Youth Loans

Provides operating type loans to eligible rural youth applicants to finance a modest income-producing agricultural project. Maximum loan amount is $5,000. The statutory authority for youth loans is section 311 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (Pub. L. 87-128).