USDA Financial Assistance Available for Eligible Grape Growers

POSTED BY Theresa Barton Cray

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is offering up to $1 billion of financial aid to American producers of certain specialty crops, including growers of wine grapes, through its new Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) program. Per USDA’s recent press release, the goal of the ASCF program is to “help address market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation, and market losses from foreign competitors engaging in unfair trade practices that impede exports.”

USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is responsible for administering the ASCF program and will issue one-time bridge payments to qualifying farmers. To be eligible for an ASCF payment, specialty crop producers must meet the following requirements:

• Be actively engaged in farming;

• Have risk and interest in the eligible planted commodity; and

• Report 2025 planted acreage to FSA by 5 p.m. ET on March 13, 2026.

ASCF payments will be calculated based on reported 2025 planted acres, and commodity-specific rates for ASCF payments are expected to be released by the end of March. The first step for reporting 2025 planted acreage is to email the completed USDA Form AD-2047 (a fillable PDF copy of this from can be found at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/documents/ad-2047) with proof of ownership (deed of trust), lease(s), or property tax statement for the applicable parcel of farmland to your local FSA office (FSA.Vacaville.ca@usda.gov for Napa County).

After submitting the 2025 acreage report, eligible producers must then apply for an ASCF payment online at Login.gov or in-person at their local FSA office. The local FSA office address and contact information for Napa County is provided below. Local offices for other counties can be found at https://www.farmers.gov/working-with-us/service-center-locator.

Vacaville Service Center, Farm Service Agency Office
Attn: Gizela Meirinho Gover
810 Vaca Valley Parkway
Vacaville, CA 95688
E-mail: gizela.gover@usda.gov
Phone: (707) 448-0106

For additional information regarding the ASCF program, please visit www.fsa.usda.gov/fba or contact your FSA county office for further assistance.