Connecticut farmers whose crops were damaged by weather in the last two years will have to wait until next year to request relief funding after the process was delayed during the government shutdown.
Regular discussions between the Connecticut Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture stalled during the 43-day government shutdown. Once it reopened in mid-November, talks picked up as they look to hammer out the final details of the federal Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant program.
The exact timing to wrap up negotiations and finalize the contract for Connecticut to administer the crop loss program, however, is still up in the air. Connecticut officials gave a loose timeline of before the 2026 planting season. (Historically, planting seasons start around April but vary for some farmers.)
And they are looking for a vendor that will help them distribute the money. The state agency can incur administrative expenses 90 days before securing a contract that federal officials can reimburse them for later.
“Since the reopening, we have resumed discussions in a regular cadence and are finalizing our timeline and work plan draft for review and approval through the USDA process,” Rebecca Eddy, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, said.
It’s been nearly a year since Congress approved the federal block grant as part of a year-end bill to fund the government last December.
After months of negotiations between state and federal officials, Connecticut found out over the summer it would receive about $53 million from a federal block grant designed to help small and midsized farmers recoup weather-related crop losses that were incurred during 2023 and 2024.
The state’s allocation is about a quarter of the $220 million Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant Program, which was open to every state in New England plus Hawaii and Alaska. The amount awarded to Connecticut was about 63.5% of the state’s $82.3 million request.
When the state learned of its allocation in August, Connecticut was still waiting for USDA to the approval of its program design and the execution of a contract. At the time, the state anticipated that could happen in September, with potential plans to open applications some time later in the fall.
But with Congress locked in a budget impasse at the end of the fiscal year, the government shut down on Oct. 1.
“We continue to seek clarity and transparency from USDA on the agency’s proposed program,” the state agency wrote in its Nov. 21 newsletter. “We recognize the financial strain that delays in funding may have on farm operations and remain committed to launching this program as soon as possible.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to a request for comment about the process.
As they look to wrap things up regarding the federal block grant, Connecticut will figure out what eligible farmers will need in terms of paperwork and documentation to be able to get some of the $53 million pot of money.
Overall, farmers in Connecticut and across the country are getting hit by rising prices and the response by countries like China to U.S. tariff policies that have ignited a trade war.
The Trump administration’s $12 billion farm aid package will provide one-time payments to producers of row crops like corn, soybeans and wheat. Only $1 billion of that will go toward specialty crops, like fruits and vegetables, as well as sugar. The details and timeline for those payments have yet to be determined.
Smaller farming states like Connecticut and other places in New England don’t typically see the same kind of assistance from the federal government, especially since they predominantly grow specialty crops.
That prompted U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, and other lawmakers to push for more federal assistance in the form of a block grant. It was designed to only apply to small and medium farming states where eligibility didn’t hinge on whether a farmer has crop insurance.
One of the influences behind establishing it was William Dellacamera, a farmer in North Branford who has been advocating for federal relief for over a year.
A 13-minute hail storm destroyed Cecarelli’s Harrison Hill Farm in August 2024. A month later, Dellacamera traveled to Washington, D.C., on his tractor to push for help from the federal government. As months went by with little developments and ongoing negotiations, he came back to the nation’s capital to ask about the status of the farm block grant. He met with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on two occasions as he made his plea for the quick rollout of the money for small and midsize farmers.
Dellacamera was pleased over the summer about the $53 million Connecticut plans to receive from the federal government. But he said there are “so many unanswered questions.”
“I didn’t think it was going to take this long,” Dellacamera said in an interview. “Somebody’s gotta figure it out, and nobody’s figuring it out quick enough.”
“Every farm is different — some are further behind and some are a little further ahead, but in the end, it’s just not working out,” he continued. “We just gotta hope that [the federal funding] does come through.”
He remains frustrated by USDA’s decision that states like Connecticut aren’t able to tap into a separate and much larger pot of disaster assistance because they have access to a specialty block grant.
Back in June, disagreements emerged over the rollout of the disaster aid block grant.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave eligible states two options. They could run their own crop loss program by using the block grant tailored for them, but they wouldn’t get access to a larger pot of supplemental disaster aid — the option that Connecticut ultimately chose. Or they could go with the latter, run by the federal agency, but face limits on what gets covered by the block grant.
Connecticut decided it would develop a state-run program using the federal block grant. That meant the state won’t get access to the $21 billion Supplemental Disaster Relief Program.
The state’s Department of Agriculture believes the block grant option will give the state more flexibility for specialty crop operations, especially since the supplemental disaster funds might not cover many of the farmers and producers in Connecticut.
At that time, the state agency and Connecticut’s congressional delegation pushed back against the USDA’s parameters that states cannot participate in both programs. Questions and concerns had emerged over the potential of farmers getting money from two places to cover the same thing.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
