(a) This subpart specifies the terms and conditions for the On-Farm Storage Loss Program. The On-Farm Storage Loss Program will provide payments to eligible producers who suffered uncompensated losses of harvested commodities stored in on farm structures as a result from hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic activity, snowstorms, and wildfires that occurred in the 2018 and 2019 calendar years.

(b) The regulations in this subpart are applicable to crops of barley, small and large chickpeas, corn, grain sorghum, lentils, oats, dry peas, peanuts, rice, wheat, soybeans, oilseeds, hay and other crops designated by Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) stored in on-farm structures. These regulations specify the general provisions under which the On-Farm Storage Loss Program will be administered by CCC. In any case in which money must be refunded to CCC in connection with this part, interest will be due to run from the date of disbursement of the sum to be refunded. This provision will apply, unless waived by the Deputy Administrator, irrespective of any other rule.

(c) Eligible on-farm structures include all on-farm structures deemed acceptable by the Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs.

(d) Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and payment limitation provisions specified in part 760.1607 of this chapter apply to this subpart.

(a) The On-Farm Storage Loss Program will be administered under the general supervision of the Executive Vice President, CCC and will be carried out in the field by FSA State and county committees, respectively.

(b) State and county committees, and representatives and their employees, do not have authority to modify or waive any of the provisions of the regulations, except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section.

(c) The FSA State committee will take any required action not taken by the FSA county committee. The FSA State committee will also:

(1) Correct or require correction of an action taken by a county committee that is not in compliance with this part; or

(2) Require a county committee to not take an action or implement a decision that is not under the regulations of this part.

(d) The Executive Vice President, CCC, or a designee, may determine any question arising under these programs, or reverse or modify a determination made by a State or county committee.

(e) The Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs, FSA, may authorize State and county committees to waive or modify non-statutory deadlines and other program requirements in cases where lateness or failure to meet such other requirements does not adversely affect the operation of the On-Farm Storage Loss Program.

(f) A representative of CCC may execute applications and related documents only under the terms and conditions determined and announced by CCC. Any document not executed under such terms and conditions, including any purported execution before the date authorized by CCC, will be null and void.

(g) Items of general applicability to program participants, including, but not limited to, application periods, application deadlines, internal operating guidelines issued to State and county offices, prices, and payment factors established by the On-Farm Storage Loss Program, are not subject to appeal.

The definitions in this section apply for all purposes of program administration. Terms defined in §§ 760.1502 and 760.1421 of this chapter also apply, except where they conflict with the definitions in this section.

Administrative County Office is the FSA County Office where a producer's FSA records are maintained.

CCC means the Commodity Credit Corporation.

COC means the FSA county committee.

Covered commodity means wheat, oats, and barley (including wheat, oats, and barley used for haying), corn, grain sorghum, long grain rice, medium grain rice, seed cotton, pulse crops, soybeans, other oilseeds, and peanuts as specified in 7 CFR 1412 and produced and mechanically harvested in the United States.

Crop means with respect to a year, commodities harvested in that year. Therefore, the referenced crop year of a commodity means commodities that when planted were intended for harvest in that calendar year.

Crop year means the relevant contract or application year. For example, the 2014 crop year is the year that runs from October 1, 2013, through September 30, 2014, and references to payments for that year refer to payments made under contracts or applications with the compliance year that runs during those dates.

FSA means the Farm Service Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Oilseeds means any crop of sunflower seed, canola, rapeseed, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, crambe, sesame seed, and other oilseeds as designated by CCC or the Secretary.

Qualifying disaster event means a hurricane, flood, tornado, typhoon, volcanic activity, snowstorm, or wildfire or related condition that occurred in the 2018 or 2019 calendar year.

Recording FSA County Office is the FSA County Office that records eligibility data for producers designated as multi-county producers.

Related condition means damaging weather or an adverse natural occurrence that occurred as a direct result of a hurricane or wildfire qualifying disaster event, such as excessive rain, high winds, flooding, mudslides, and heavy smoke.

Secretary means the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, or the Secretary's delegate.

STC means the FSA State committee.

(a) To be an eligible producer, the producer must:

(1) Be a person, partnership, association, corporation, estate, trust, or other legal entity that produces an eligible commodity as a landowner, landlord, tenant, or sharecropper, or in the case of rice, furnishes land, labor, water, or equipment for a share of the rice crop.

(2) Comply with all provisions of this part and, as applicable:

(i) 7 CFR part 12—Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation;

(ii) 7 CFR part 707—Payments Due Persons Who Have Died, Disappeared, or Have Been Declared Incompetent;

(iii) 7 CFR part 718—Provisions Applicable to Multiple Programs;

(v) 7 CFR part 1400—Payment Limitation & Payment Eligibility; and

(vii) 7 CFR part 1403—Debt Settlement Policies and Procedures.

(b) A receiver or trustee of an insolvent or bankrupt debtor's estate, an executor or an administrator of a deceased person's estate, a guardian of an estate of a ward or an incompetent person, and trustees of a trust is considered to represent the insolvent or bankrupt debtor, the deceased person, the ward or incompetent, and the beneficiaries of a trust, respectively. The production of the receiver, executor, administrator, guardian, or trustee is considered to be the production of the person or estate represented by the receiver, executor, administrator, guardian, or trustee. On-Farm Storage Loss Program documents executed by any such person will be accepted by CCC only if they are legally valid and such person has the authority to sign the applicable documents.

(c) A minor who is otherwise an eligible producer is eligible to receive a program payment only if the minor meets one of the following requirements:

(1) The right of majority has been conferred on the minor by court proceedings or by statute;

(2) A guardian has been appointed to manage the minor's property and the applicable program documents are signed by the guardian;

(3) Any program application signed by the minor is cosigned by a person determined by the FSA county committee to be financially responsible; or

(e) A producer must meet the requirements of actively engaged in farming, cash rent tenant, and member contribution as specified in 7 CFR part 1400 to be eligible for program payments.

(a) Commodities eligible to be compensated for loss made under this part are:

(1) Covered Commodities;

(2) Hay; and

(3) Stored in an on-farm structure that under normal circumstances, would have maintained the quality of the commodity throughout harvest until marketing or feed if not for the qualifying weather event.

(b) A commodity produced on land owned or otherwise in the possession of the United States that is occupied without the consent of the United States is not an eligible commodity.

(a) All persons with a financial interest in the legal entity receiving payments under this subpart are jointly and severally liable for any refund, including related charges, which is determined to be due to FSA for any reason.

(b) In the event that any application for payment under this subpart resulted from erroneous information or a miscalculation, the payment will be recalculated and any excess refunded to FSA with interest to be calculated from the date of the disbursement.

(c) Any payment to any participant under this subpart will be made without regard to questions of title under State law, and without regard to any claim or lien against the commodity, or proceeds, in favor of the owner or any other creditor except agencies of the U.S. Government. The regulations governing offsets and withholdings in part 792 of this chapter apply to payments made under this subpart.

(d) Any participant entitled to any payment may assign any payment(s) in accordance with regulations governing the assignment of payments in part 792 of this chapter.

(e) The regulations in 7 CFR parts 11 and 780 apply to determinations under this subpart.

Losses will be determined total production in storage at time of loss. Eligibility and payments will be based on physical location of storage. Payments will be made on commodities that were completely lost or destroyed while in storage due to the qualifying weather related event.

For the On-Farm Storage Loss Program, payments will be issued as applications are approved.

(a) Per loss year, a person or legal entity, other than a joint venture or general partnership, is eligible to receive, directly or indirectly payments of not more than $125,000.

(b) The direct attribution provisions in § 760.1507 of this part apply for payment limitation as defined and used in this rule.

(a) The On-Farm Storage Loss Program will provide a payment to eligible producers who suffered losses of harvested commodities while such commodities were stored in on farm structures as a result from hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic activity, snowstorms, and wildfires that occurred in the 2018 and 2019 calendar years.

(b) For a loss due to or related to an event specified in paragraph (a) of this section, the loss must have occurred on acreage that was physically located in a county that received a:

(1) Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration authorizing public assistance for categories C through G or individual assistance due to a hurricane occurring in the 2018 or 2019 calendar year; or

(2) Secretarial Disaster Designation for a hurricane occurring in the 2018 or 2019 calendar year.

(c) A producer with a loss not located in a physical location county that was eligible under paragraph (b)(1) of this section will be eligible for a program payment for losses due to hurricane and related conditions only if the producer provides supporting documentation that is acceptable to FSA from which the FSA county committee determines that the loss of the commodity was reasonably related to a qualifying disaster event as specified in this subpart and meets all other eligibility conditions. Supporting documentation may include furnishing climatological data from a reputable source or other information substantiating the claim of loss due to a qualifying disaster event.

(d) For a loss due to wildfires and conditions related to wildfire in the 2018 or 2019 calendar year, all counties where wildfires occurred, as determined by FSA county committees, are eligible program payments; a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration or Secretarial Disaster Designation for wildfire is not required. The loss must be reasonably related to wildfire and conditions related to wildfire, as specified in this subpart's definition of qualifying disaster event.

(e) For a loss due to floods, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic activity, snowstorms or any other directly related weather disaster event, the loss must be reasonably related to the disaster event as specified in this subpart's definition of qualifying disaster event.

(a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) of this section, to be eligible for payments under this subpart the commodity stored in an eligible structure must have suffered a loss due to a qualifying disaster event.

(b) A loss will not be eligible for the On-Farm Storage Loss Program this subpart if any of the following apply:

(1) The cause of loss is determined by FSA to be the result of poor management decisions, poor farming practices, or previously damaged structures;

(2) The cause of loss was due to failure of the participant to store the commodity in an eligible structure before the qualifying disaster event; or

(3) The cause of loss was due to water contained or released by any governmental, public, or private dam or reservoir project if an easement exists on the acreage affected by the containment or release of the water.

(c) The following types of loss, regardless of whether they were the result of an eligible disaster event, are not eligible losses:

(1) Losses to crops that have not been harvested.

(2) Losses to crops not intended for harvest;

(4) Losses caused by improper storage;

(5) Losses caused by the application of chemicals; and

(6) Losses caused by theft.

(a) An application for payment under this subpart must be submitted to the FSA county office serving as the farm's administrative county office by the close of business on a date that will be announced by the Deputy Administrator.

(b) Once signed by a producer, the application for payment is considered to contain information and certifications of and pertaining to the producer regardless of who entered the information on the application.

(c) The producer applying for the On-Farm Storage Loss Program under this subpart certifies the accuracy and truthfulness of the information provided in the application as well as any documentation filed with or in support of the application. All information is subject to verification or spot check by FSA at any time, either before or after payment is issued. Refusal to allow FSA or any agency of the Department of Agriculture to verify any information provided will result in the participant's forfeiting eligibility for this program. FSA may at any time, including before, during, or after processing and paying an application, require the producer to submit any additional information necessary to implement or determine any eligibility provision of this subpart. Furnishing required information is voluntary; however, without it FSA is under no obligation to act on the application or approve payment. Providing a false certification will result in ineligibility and can also be punishable by imprisonment, fines, and other penalties.

(d) The application submitted in accordance with paragraph (a) of this section is not considered valid and complete for issuance of payment under this subpart unless FSA determines all the applicable eligibility provisions have been satisfied and the participant has submitted all required documentation.

(e) Application approval and payment by FSA does not relieve a participant from having to submit any form required, but not filed.

(a) Payments made under this subpart to a participant for loss of stored commodities are calculated, except hay or silage, by:

(1) Multiplying the eligible quantity of the eligible commodity by the RMA determined price;

(2) Multiplying the result from paragraph (a)(1) of this section by a 75 percent factor.

(b) Payments made under this subpart to a participant for loss of stored hay or silage, by:

(1) Multiplying the eligible quantity of the eligible commodity by a price as determined by the Secretary;

(2) Multiplying the result from paragraph (b)(1) of this section by a 75 percent factor.