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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) $2 billion Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) program, aimed at helping specialty crop producers expand markets and manage higher costs, is now accepting applications. Using Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds, MASC provides eligible specialty crop producers with marketing assistance payments to help them engage in activities that aid in expanding domestic specialty crop markets or in developing new markets for their specialty crops in 2025.

Who is eligible? To be eligible for payments, a person or legal entity must have an average adjusted gross income (AGI) of less than $900,000 for tax years 2021, 2022, and 2023, unless the applicant’s average adjusted gross farm income is at least 75 percent of their average AGI. Additionally, applicants must:

• Be in the business of producing a specialty crop at the time of application and be entitled to an ownership share and share in the risk of producing a specialty crop that will be sold in calendar year 2025;
• Be a U.S. citizen, resident alien, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or other organizational structure organized under State law, Indian Tribe or Tribal Organization, or a foreign person or foreign entity who meets certain eligibility requirements;
• Comply with the provisions of the “Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation” regulations, often called the conservation compliance provisions;
• Not have a controlled substance violation;
• Submit a complete MASC application form (FSA-1140) and provide all required documentation.

What crops are eligible? Eligible specialty crop sales only include sales of commercially marketed raw specialty crops grown in the United States by the producer. The portion of sales derived from adding value to a specialty crop (such as sorting, processing, or packaging) is not included in eligible sales. To be considered a specialty crop sale, the producer must have received payment for the specialty crop during the applicable calendar year. MASC covers the following commercially marketed specialty crops:

• Fruits (fresh, dried)
• Vegetables (including dry edible beans and peas, mushrooms, and vegetable seed)
• Tree nuts
• Nursery crops, Christmas trees, and floriculture
• Culinary and medicinal herbs and spices
• Honey, hops, maple sap, tea, turfgrass, and grass seed

How will funding amounts be determined? Of the approximately $2 billion available for funding nationwide, individual producers’ payment calculations will be based upon their total specialty crop sales for the calendar year elected by the producer (2023 or 2024). Eligible specialty crop sales only include sales of commercially marketed raw specialty crops grown in the United States by the producer. The portion of sales derived from adding value to a specialty crop (such as sorting, processing, or packaging) is not included in eligible sales. To be considered a specialty crop sale, the producer must have received payment for the specialty crop during the applicable calendar year.

After the end of the application period, USDA will determine a payment factor to apply to each sales tier based upon the number of applicants within that tier and will calculate payments accordingly, with a maximum payment limitation of $125,000.

What is the application process? Eligible producers can apply by completing the FSA-1140, Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) Application and submitting it, along with all required FSA forms, to any FSA county office by January 8, 2025. FSA staff at local USDA service centers will work with producers to file applications.

The full Notice of Funds Availability can be found here.

For more information on these grants or how to apply with Morrison’s assistance, please contact the Morrison Grants Team by email at grants@morrisonco.net or call us at 530-893-4764.