Georgia cotton producers impacted by Hurricane Michael in 2018 are encouraged to participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Quality Loss Adjustment (QLA) Program.
The QLA program provides financial assistance to crop producers who experienced quality losses caused by qualifying disaster events in 2018 or 2019.
The Georgia Cotton Commission GCC encourages producers to participate, says executive director Taylor Sills.
“Any producer that had any of their production that had a 5% or more quality loss is eligible to receive a payment on 70% of that loss. This is a stand-alone program from your other USDA programs like PLC, ARC, WHIP and WHIP-PLUS. It’s worth noting that this is only for the 2018 and 2019 crops. Especially for 2018, we think that most counties in Georgia will qualify based on, as everyone remembers, the devastation that Hurricane Michael left throughout the state,” Sills said.
“We still have a lot of questions about this program and how it’s going to work. Be sure to stay tuned to our website, the National Cotton Council’s website. This is another reminder that all Georgia cotton producers are members of the National Cotton Council. Therefore, create a login to access the information about this and all the other USDA programs that affect cotton and cotton production.”
The USDA announced on Jan. 5 that the Quality Loss Adjustment Program will assist producers whose eligible crops suffered quality losses due to qualifying drought, excessive moisture, flooding, hurricanes, snowstorms, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic activity or wildfires occurring in 2018 or 2019.
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