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Since nursery crop eligibility is so recent, USDA has little 

 experience in dealing with the uniqueness of producing nursery 

 crops. This relative unfamiliarity is compounded by the 

 resulting difficulty in implementing treatment of nursery crops 

 under the disaster assistance programs. 



YEAR OF CROP SALE/HARVEST PROVISION LIMITS NURSERY INDUSTRY 

 ELIGIBILITY UNDER CROP LOSS DISASTER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM 



Rules governing the crop loss disaster assistance program state 

 that crops ineligible for disaster payments are crops not 

 intended for sale or harvest in the year in which the disaster 

 occurs. As noted above, unlike other agricultural commodities, 

 many nursery crops have multi-year production periods. 



What if a late-season hurricane was to hit the coasts of Florida 

 and North Carolina today? In these two leading nursery 

 production states, most nursery crops will neither be sold nor 

 harvested by December 31, 1993. The current rules of the crop 

 loss disaster program would preclude nursery growers affected by 

 such a hurricane from eligibility for the crop loss disaster 

 assistance program. Yet, if the crops are destroyed, no income 

 can be derived regardless of when they may be intended for sale 

 or harvest. 



If the premise of crop loss disaster assistance is the 

 restoration of income to farmers, then this crop sale/harvest 

 limitation discriminates against eligibility of nursery farmers. 

 AAN urges Congress and USDA to recognize the uniqueness of 

 nursery crop production by amending the rules to provide nursery 

 crop eligibility without regard to the year of crop sale or 

 harvest. 



RULES GOVERNING LOSS OF MARKET VALUE ARE INCONSISTENT 



Rules governing the crop loss disaster assistance program states 

 that to be eligible for disaster benefits, nursery crops must be 

 dead. Injured, scarred or stunted plants, or plants delayed for 

 harvest, are not eligible. Once again, the crop loss disaster 

 program ignores the fact that such nursery crops are economically 

 worthless. 



A nursery grower cannot sell scarred, damaged or stunted nursery 

 crops, such as ornamental trees, as there is no simply no retail 

 or landscape market for such products. Moreover, appearances can 

 sometimes yield misleading conclusions. While a tree or plant 

 may appear to be alive to a USDA official inspecting for crop 

 loss, the plant's root system may in fact be dead. In addition, 



