Oil refiners could additionally lower the cost of gasoline by blending 10 percent ethanol into every gallon of gasoline sold in the Midwest. Administered by the USDA's Farm Service Agency, NAP helps producers who don't have federal multiple peril crop insurance like that available for wheat and barley. In Montana, it may help producers of peas and lentils, several of the minor oilseed crops, seed and some harvested forage crops. However, prompt reporting is required by the program. Though NAP financial assistance offsets only a small portion of per acre operating costs, it can reduce losses for producers of eligible crops and commodities.
Several technicalities apply.
NAP crops are those with no Risk Management Agency actuarial table, and for which a producer did not request an actuarial change and receive a written agreement to provide individualized crop insurance coverage. Most Montana producers report their acreage and production of crops eligible for NAP coverage during annual crop reports to county Farm Service Agency offices. The NAP requires this actual production history to calculate assistance levels. After a natural disaster such as a drought, Farm Service Agency offices will identify its geographic extent, the crops or commodities impacted, and the NAP area affected by the natural disaster, which must include at least five different producers of eligible crops. NAP areas are often at least one county in size.