The Wildlife and Hurricane Indemnity Program (WHIP+) was born from hurricanes Michael, Florence, and Dorian as well as covered natural disasters. Although this program authorized the money, it did not have specific language or geographical spread on where or how the money was to be dispersed. An additional supplement was attached to it in 2019 to cover the flooding, property damage, and infrastructure in the south. By declaring counties a disaster in March due to flooding (covered disaster) it made North Dakota eligible for disaster money. The direct result of that declaration was the Prevent Plant (top-up) payments that were issued.
A second disaster was declared in North Dakota for 46 counties due to “snowstorm” in October. The other 6 counties are eligible for assistance as well, there was just not enough harvested acres to determine eligibility at that time. If you are in one of the 6 counties not declared a disaster currently, please still apply and the local FSA board will determine eligibility.
I am proud of the efforts of myself, and my staff in lobbying our ND legislatures on the ability to piggy back this program. It was never meant for our state but here we are, with another disaster program as a tool to use through this difficult time. Since it was enacted and expanded, the funding of this program is in question, leading the FSA to pay 50% of the disaster claim now and wait and see for additional funding.
You can apply for WHIP + once your crop insurance loss has been worked and paid. Simply call your local FSA office to tell them you have experienced a WHIP+ qualifying loss. They will then download your information direct from RMA and will call you when your application is ready to sign. You will need to have your crop insurance notice of loss with you when signing your application. This can be provided by you agent. You will also have to sign a guarantee that you will carry buy up insurance coverage for the next 2 years in order to qualify for payment. Please call your individual agent with any and all questions that you have. We will update information as we receive it. In the meantime, I have attached a fact sheet that shows the formula and (top-up) charts for respective MPCI levels.
Again, we are proud of our agency for being on the front line of this achievement!
