WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has implemented the new Supplemental Revenue Assis-tance Payments program (SURE) in accordance with the 2008 Farm Bill.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack encouraged producers to visit their USDA Farm Service Agency county office to participate in the program if they suffered crop production losses during 2008. SURE provides crop disaster assistance payments to eligible producers on farms that have incurred crop production or crop quality losses. The program takes into consideration crop losses on all crops grown by a producer nationwide.

SURE provides assistance in an amount equal to 60 percent of the difference between the SURE farm guarantee and total farm revenue. The farm guarantee is based on the amount of crop insurance and Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) coverage on the farm. Total farm revenue takes into account the actual value of production on the farm as well as insurance indemnities and certain farm program payments.

To be eligible for SURE, producers must have suffered at least a 10 percent production loss on a crop of economic significance. Producers must meet the risk management purchase requirement by either obtaining a policy or plan of insurance, under the Federal Crop Insurance Act or NAP coverage, for all economically significant crops.

A producer must have a far-ming interest physically lo-cated in a county that was declared a primary disaster county or contiguous county by the Agriculture Secretary under a Secretarial Disaster Designation.

For more information on the new SURE program, visit your local FSA county office or http://www.fsa.usda.gov.