The USDA announced the establishment of the Marketing Assistance Program for Specialty Crops Program (MASC). The application period opens today, December 10, and runs through January 8, 2025. Growers will see similarities between this program and the CFAP 2 program which provided direct payments to growers in response to the Covid pandemic. In this instance, direct payments will help growers offset increased expenses associated with producing specialty crops.
Who Can Participate?
MASC covers the following commercially marketed specialty crops
grown in the US:
- Fruits (fresh, dried)
- Vegetables (including dry edible beans and peas, mushrooms, and vegetable seeds)
- Tree nuts
- Nursery crops, Christmas trees, and floriculture
- Culinary and medicinal herbs and spices
- Honey, hops, maple sap, tea, turfgrass, and grass seed
Common examples of specialty crops can be found on USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service’s specialty crop definition webpage.
Eligible Producers Or Legal Entities Must:
- Have an average adjusted gross income (AGI) of less than $900,000 for tax years 2021, 2022, and 2023, unless the producer or legal entity’s average adjusted gross farm income is at least 75 percent of their average AGI;
- Be in the business of producing a specialty crop at the time of application and be entitled to an ownership share and share in the risk of producing a specialty crop that will be sold in the calendar year 2025;
- Be a U.S. citizen, resident alien, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or other organizational structure organized under state law, Indian Tribe or Tribal Organization, or a foreign person or foreign entity who meets certain eligibility requirements;
- Comply with the provisions of the “Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation” regulations, often called the conservation compliance provisions; and
- Not have a controlled substance violation.
Program Payments
- FSA will issue MASC payments after the end of the application period. If demand for MASC payments exceeds available funding, MASC payments may be prorated, and the payment limitation of $125,000 may be lowered. If additional funding is available after MASC payments are issued, FSA may issue an additional payment.
- For established specialty crop growers, those who certify crop sales in 2023 or 2024, FSA will calculate MASC payments based on the producer’s total specialty crop sales for the calendar year elected by the producer.
- Payments for new producers will be based on their expected 2025 calendar year sales and must submit FSA-1141 Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) New Producer Expected Sales Worksheet.
How To Apply
Eligible producers or legal entities must submit a complete Form FSA-1140, MASC Application (available soon) to any FSA county office by Jan. 8, 2025. FSA staff at your local USDA Service Center will work with you to file your application.
MASC applicants, established and new, must also submit the following information to FSA if not already on file at the time of application:
- Form AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet.
- Form CCC-902, Farm Operating Plan for an individual or legal entity.
- Form CCC-941, Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Certification and Consent to Disclosure of Tax Information.
- Form CCC-942, Certification of Income from Farming, Ranching, and Forestry Operations, if applicable, for the producer and members of entities.
- A highly erodible land conservation (sometimes referred to as HELC) and wetland conservation certification (Form AD-1026 Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland Conservation (WC) Certification) for the ERP producer and applicable affiliates.
FSA may request other documentation to support reported specialty crop sales.
