USDA CUTS RED TAPE TO SPEED LOSS PAYMENTS TO FARMERS
                                                               
                                           Release No. 0419.99 
                                                               
                                  Eric Edgington (202) 690-2539
                                    Eric_Edgington@wdc.usda.gov

USDA CUTS RED TAPE TO SPEED LOSS PAYMENTS TO FARMERS 

     WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 1999 Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced 
today that USDA has streamlined crop insurance procedures to speed payments to
insured farmers devastated by  floods caused by recent hurricanes.  

     Under most conditions, loss adjusters are currently required to verify
insured acres before authorizing payments. Under today's announcement, 
adjusters can accept the acres certified by the farmer so payments are not
delayed waiting for flood waters to recede.  Verification of self-certified
acres will be checked at a later date to avoid fraud. Another rule change
reduces the number of samples needed to determine crop losses.  Generally, the
amount of paperwork and time needed to complete a claim will be reduced.

     "These common sense changes will enable faster and more efficient
distribution of crop insurance payments to farmers devastated by hurricanes,"
said Glickman.

     In 1999, USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) provided North Carolina's
producers more than $902 million in protection through over 27,000 policies
covering 2.8 million acres (67 percent of all insurable crop acreage).  North
Carolina farmers will be receiving indemnities of more than $162 million due
to damage caused by hurricanes.

     RMA's decision to streamline loss adjustment procedures for most insured
crops applies only in the counties hardest hit by the hurricanes.  Those
counties are:

NORTH CAROLINA:
Beaufort   Bertie     Bladen       Brunswick    Camden    Carteret
Chowan     Columbus   Craven       Cumberland   Currituck Dare
Duplin     Edgecombe  Gates        Greene       Halifax   Harnett
Hertford   Hoke       Hyde         Johnston     Jones     Lenoir
Martin     Nash       New Hanover  Northampton  Onslow    Pamlico
Pasquotank Pender     Perquimans   Pitt         Roberson  Sampson
Scotland   Tyrrell    Washington   Wayne        Wilson
                                

SOUTH CAROLINA: Horry

VIRGINIA
Accomack       Charles City  Chesapeake     Greenville
Isle of Wight  James City    Northhampton   Prince George
Southampton    Suffolk City  Surry          Sussex
Virginia Beach
                      
     Additional disaster relief information can be obtained at
www.usda.gov/disaster/index.htm.





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