Reviewed August 2026 against USDA Farm Service Agency program pages and news releases.

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ECAP Second Payment: 2024 USDA Rates & Payment Guide

The Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) pays eligible U.S. producers a fixed dollar amount per acre for 2024-crop-year covered commodities, split into two disbursements: an initial payment covering 85% of the calculated amount, followed by a second payment that brings the total to 99%. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) issued that second payment starting September 26, 2025, and by that date had disbursed a combined $8 billion in ECAP funds to more than 500,000 producers, according to USDA FSA’s September 26, 2025 news release. This guide covers exactly what the second payment is, the per-acre rates by commodity, the payment-limit rules, and how to check your own status without guessing.

What Is the ECAP Second Payment?

ECAP was never designed to pay out in one lump sum. USDA structured it as two disbursements per producer: an initial payment equal to 85% of your calculated ECAP amount, followed by a second payment if program funds allow. On September 26, 2025, FSA confirmed it had issued that second payment, worth an additional 14 percentage points, bringing the cumulative payment factor to 99% of the original calculated amount, per the USDA FSA ECAP program page. In practical terms: a producer whose full calculated ECAP payment was $10,000 received roughly $8,500 in the initial round and an additional $1,400 in the second round, for $9,900 total — 99%, not 100%, of the calculated figure.

Why not 100%? FSA holds back a small reserve against a fixed appropriation so it does not overpay against the $10 billion ceiling before every application is processed. If you applied before the August 15, 2025 deadline and have not seen a second deposit, the fastest way to check status is a direct call or visit to your local FSA county office — payment timing runs office-by-office based on when your application was finalized, not a single national release date.

Program Overview: What ECAP Is and Who Funded It

The Emergency Commodity Assistance Program is a USDA initiative authorized to distribute up to $10 billion in direct payments to producers of covered commodities for the 2024 crop year, in response to elevated input costs and depressed commodity prices. USDA opened the ECAP signup period on March 19, 2025, per the USDA news release announcing the $10 billion disbursement, and closed applications on August 15, 2025. The program covers both planted and prevented-planted acres that producers reported to FSA for the 2024 season.

As of the September 26, 2025 update, USDA had disbursed $8 billion of that $10 billion authorization to more than 500,000 eligible producers — meaning roughly 80% of the funding ceiling was out the door by late September 2025, with the remainder tied up in later-processed applications and the held-back 1% reserve described above. That $8 billion / 500,000-producer figure is the most recent official disbursement snapshot FSA has published; USDA posts updates to disbursement totals periodically at fsa.usda.gov/news-events, so check that page directly for any figure issued after this review date.

This “agricultural payments” mechanism — a fixed per-acre rate tied to reported acreage, rather than a loss-based indemnity — is distinct from crop insurance and from disaster-loss programs like the Emergency Relief Program (ERP), which we compare below.

ECAP Eligibility Requirements & Criteria

FSA’s eligibility test for ECAP rests on four conditions. All four must hold for a given producer and commodity:

• Active engagement in farming: you must be directly participating in planting, production, or management decisions for a covered commodity in the 2024 season — landownership alone does not qualify.
• Financial interest in input expenses: you must carry a documented financial stake in the input costs of the eligible commodity, whether incurred pre-planting, during management, or through harvest.
• 2024 acreage reporting on file: planted and prevented-planted acres must be reported to FSA on Form FSA-578, Report of Acreage. Producers who had not filed before signup opened needed to do so ahead of the August 15, 2025 deadline.
• Notice of loss for prevented plantings: where acreage was prevented from planting, a notice of loss or acreage report documenting that loss must also be on file.

Meeting all four secures eligibility for a payment calculated against your reported acres. Your local FSA county office is the authoritative source for confirming whether your specific FSA-578 filing is complete — this is worth a direct call rather than assuming from a generic checklist, since acreage-reporting requirements are tied to your specific county and crop.

ECAP Payment Rates per Acre by Commodity

USDA published a fixed per-acre rate for each covered commodity for the 2024 crop year. These rates are the base figure before the 85%/99% disbursement schedule is applied — that is, they are the “100%” calculated rate, and what a producer actually receives across both payments is 99% of the figures below. Three rates are independently confirmed against the FSA program page:

• Corn: $42.91 per acre (2024 crop year, USDA FSA)
• Wheat: $30.69 per acre (2024 crop year, USDA FSA)
• Soybeans: $29.76 per acre (2024 crop year, USDA FSA)

For every other covered commodity — sorghum, barley, oats, upland and extra-long staple cotton, long and medium grain rice, peanuts, dry peas, lentils, chickpeas, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, and sunflower — FSA publishes the exact current rate on the same program page, and the fastest way to get an exact figure for your crop is the official calculator rather than a static table on any third-party site: the USDA FSA ECAP program page links directly to FSA’s Payment Calculator, which applies the correct rate to your reported acres automatically. Rates are set once per crop year and do not change mid-cycle, but they are a USDA determination independent of this article, so treat the calculator as the source of truth if you are budgeting against an exact number.

Answering “what are agricultural payments” in ECAP’s specific case: the payment per acre is calculated as the published rate multiplied by your reported eligible acres, then reduced to 85% for the initial disbursement and 99% cumulative after the second payment — not a lump per-farm amount and not tied to your actual yield or realized price.

ECAP Payment Rates and Region Summary Table

For any rate not shown above as a confirmed figure, FSA’s calculator is the correct source — resist any table (including older versions of this one) that lists a rate without a USDA citation attached, since ECAP rates are commodity-specific determinations, not regional averages.

How ECAP Compares to Other Agricultural Payments

ECAP is one of several USDA disaster and economic-assistance mechanisms, and producers searching “usda emergency commodity assistance program” or “emergency commodity assistance program” are often trying to place it relative to prior relief. The clearest comparison is the Emergency Relief Program (ERP), which covered 2020–2021 crop losses from qualifying natural disasters. ERP was authorized for $10 billion and disbursed $7.5 billion in Phase One payments in 2022, with final payments of $306 million issued by February 8, 2024, according to the USDA FSA ERP final-payment news release.

The structural difference matters: ERP paid against documented disaster losses tied to specific weather events, while ECAP pays a flat per-acre rate regardless of whether your farm suffered a weather loss — it responds to input-cost and price conditions across the whole 2024 crop year, not a discrete disaster date. If you are trying to determine which program applies to a loss you experienced, that distinction is the first filter.

ECAP’s own disbursement pace — $8 billion of $10 billion, or 80% of authorization, out to producers within roughly six months of signup opening — is faster than ERP’s multi-year final-payment tail, largely because ECAP’s flat-rate design requires less individualized loss verification per application.

How to Apply for ECAP

ECAP’s original signup window ran from March 19 through August 15, 2025. That window has closed, and for most producers now searching for ECAP, the live question is status and second-payment tracking rather than a fresh application. If your area’s FSA office is still processing late or corrected applications, the process below still applies:

1. Pre-filled applications from FSA: producers who had a 2024 acreage report on file received a pre-filled ECAP application from their local FSA county office, for review, signature, and return.
2. Apply online: the electronic path runs through a secure login.gov account at the FSA ECAP portal.
3. In person or by fax: applications could also be submitted directly to a local county FSA office.
4. One application covers all commodities: a single application covers every eligible commodity on your reported acres — there is no need for separate submissions per crop.

For a status check, corrected filing, or a question about a missing second payment, contact the nearest FSA county office directly — office locations and hours are the authoritative source for current processing timelines, which vary by county caseload rather than following one national schedule.

Helpful tips:

• Confirm your Form FSA-578 was filed for all planted and prevented-planted 2024 acres before assuming a payment is pending.
• Use the ECAP Online Calculator to independently verify the dollar figure FSA calculated for you.

Farmonaut’s satellite-based crop monitoring can support the acreage-reporting side of this process. Developers and agribusinesses can integrate Farmonaut’s satellite and weather data directly using the farm management API and its developer documentation.

Payment Limitations and Gross Income Rules

ECAP applies a payment limit per person or legal entity, set by how much of your average gross income over 2020, 2021, and 2022 came from farming, ranching, or forestry:

• $125,000 limit: applies where farming, ranching, or forestry income was less than 75% of average gross income across those three reference years.
• $250,000 limit: applies where farming, ranching, or forestry income was at least 75% of average gross income across the same period.

These are ECAP-specific caps and are not combined with payment limits from other USDA programs. A producer whose calculated payment (acreage × rate) exceeds their applicable cap has their payment reduced to the cap, before the 85%/99% disbursement split is applied.

How the 85%/99% Payment Calculation Works

The full calculation runs in three steps:

• Step 1 — base amount: ECAP per-acre rate × number of eligible reported acres for that commodity.
• Step 2 — initial payment: FSA issued 85% of the calculated base amount as the first payment, a deliberate holdback to protect the $10 billion ceiling until total demand was known.
• Step 3 — second payment: FSA issued an additional payment bringing the cumulative total to 99% of the base amount, confirmed disbursed starting September 26, 2025.

Two adjustments apply before Step 1 is finalized: prevented-planted acres are only eligible for 50% of the reported prevented-planted area (not the full acreage), and any amount above your applicable $125,000 or $250,000 payment limit is capped before the percentage split is applied. A producer’s actual bank deposit is therefore base amount → capped at the payment limit → reduced to 85%, then later topped up to 99% cumulative.

ECAP Payment Estimator

Estimate your own ECAP payment across both disbursements using the confirmed per-acre rates and the 85%/99% payment schedule described above — enter your own acres and rate to see the initial and second-payment breakdown.

Additional Resources & Tools for ECAP Applicants

• ECAP Online Calculator: use USDA’s own tool here to check the exact rate and calculated amount for your commodity and acres.
• Farmonaut App: satellite-based crop monitoring and farm management via the Farmonaut App for Android, iOS, and web — useful for keeping acreage records consistent with what you reported on FSA-578.
• Local USDA FSA office: for application status, corrected filings, or payment questions, visit your local FSA county office.

Compliance and sustainability: Farmonaut’s Carbon Footprinting service helps monitor and document agricultural carbon emissions alongside your ECAP recordkeeping.

Supply chain transparency: Farmonaut Product Traceability secures farm-to-buyer data on your commodities.

Fleet and resource management: Farmonaut Fleet Management supports more efficient use of farm vehicles and equipment.

Large-scale operations: Farmonaut’s Large Scale Farm Management App provides analytics for plantation health, yield forecasting, and area estimation across multiple fields or farms.

How Farmonaut Technology Supports Acreage Reporting

Since ECAP payments hinge entirely on what you reported to FSA on Form FSA-578, keeping your own acreage records accurate is the single most controllable factor in your payment amount. Farmonaut’s precision agriculture tools support that in a few concrete ways:

• Satellite-based crop health monitoring: assess acreage instantly with NDVI and soil moisture data, useful for cross-checking planted versus prevented-planted claims.
• Jeevn AI Advisory: data-driven crop guidance aimed at reducing wasted input spend, relevant given ECAP rates are pegged to input-cost pressure.
• Blockchain traceability: maintains a documented record of commodity handling that can support your own recordkeeping alongside FSA filings.
• Fleet and resource management: tracks vehicle and equipment use tied to input expenses.
• Weather and yield prediction: helps producers anticipate the input-cost and price conditions that programs like ECAP are designed to offset.

Farmonaut’s web and mobile platform is built to keep this kind of documentation consistent and available, which matters for any future federal relief program that references reported acreage the way ECAP does.

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FAQ: ECAP Payments and the Second Payment

Further reading:

• nearest FSA county office
• local FSA county office

Summary: What to Do Next With Your ECAP Payment

ECAP’s signup window closed August 15, 2025, and by September 26, 2025, USDA had confirmed the second payment and pushed cumulative disbursements to $8 billion across more than 500,000 producers. If you filed on time, the two things worth checking now are: whether your second payment has landed (bringing your total to 99% of your calculated amount), and whether your FSA-578 acreage figures match what you’d calculate yourself using the confirmed per-acre rates above. Both are best confirmed directly with your local FSA office rather than assumed from a published rate table, since your specific payment reflects your acreage, your payment-limit tier, and your county’s processing timeline.

For ongoing acreage monitoring, documentation, and precision agriculture support, download the Farmonaut app or explore the web interface at the link above.