By Clint Thompson
Georgia cotton growers impacted by natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 will benefit from disaster assistance funding announced earlier this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Taylor Sills, executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission, discussed the impact that the funding will have on his growers who are struggling through challenging times.
“Our industry is in a crisis. I’ve talked to a lot of producers all year and especially within the last week just about how dire our row crop producers’ situations are in Georgia,” Sills said. “These funds are instrumental for producers just to get financed; for people to take care of old debt; for people to bridge to next year. We’re hopeful that there are more announcements coming as we move forward to help bridge that gap to 2026.
“Signup for this is Monday, Nov. 24. The signup concludes on April 30. That’s a pretty wide window for folks to go in. I would encourage anyone who thinks they may be eligible and have questions about their eligibility to go talk to their FSA county folks who will be informed on this program as we get into it.”
SDRP Specifics
The USDA announced the phase two of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) earlier this week which is designed to cover losses that were not covered in phase one. This is for losses for the 2023 and 2024 crops in Georgia.
“Of course, most of that is going to be focused around Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Helene,” Sills said. “Stage one was with indemnified losses. Stage two is your uncovered and not indemnified losses. We had a lot of producers in the state who had a significant loss but may have not had triggered anything from their crop insurance. That’s who this is focused towards.”