U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins has announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will deliver more than $531 million in Congressionally approved disaster assistance to the agricultural producers in Georgia.
The funding, provided in the form of a block grant contract with the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA), is aimed at supporting producers in recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene.
“Georgia farmers and ranchers have been hard hit and endured substantial economic losses in 2024,” Rollins stated. “Our office has worked hand-in-hand with the State of Georgia to get impacted individuals the relief they require in record time. President Trump supports our farmers and will make sure they receive the assistance they require to keep producing the safest, most dependable, and most bountiful food supply in the world.”
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler J. Harper seconded the significance of the funding, saying, “I am extremely proud to announce the State of Georgia will receive $531,000,000 in federal funding to provide badly needed relief to affected farmers and producers through Georgia’s Hurricane Helene Block Grant Program.”. This investment is crucially necessary to assist our farm families in recovering from Hurricane Helene, and our staff spent hundreds of hours negotiating to obtain the greatest amount of federal funding available for our state and our producers.
Harper also commended Secretary Rollins and USDA’s Farm Service Agency staff for their collaboration and sense of urgency in responding to the crisis.
This grant is under the larger $30 billion disaster aid program approved under the American Relief Act, 2025. USDA is collaborating with 14 states, including Georgia, to provide state-specific block grants that respond to individual agricultural and infrastructure recovery needs.
The USDA, the office of Governor Brian Kemp, and the GDA are finalizing the agreement, which will extend to future economic losses, repairing infrastructure, and timber loss. Further program specifics will be announced once the agreement is finalized.
In addition to this Georgia-specific relief, USDA continues to implement disaster recovery across the country. In July 2025, Secretary Rollins initiated Stage 1 of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) to assist producers with weather disaster losses incurred in 2023 and 2024. USDA already has paid more than $1 billion through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) to drought and federally managed land wildfire-stricken ranchers, with an additional $1 billion to flood- and non-federally managed land wildfire-affected producers.
In addition, the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) has delivered over $9 billion to assist farmers in covering increasing input expenses and decreasing commodity prices. Producers of livestock and farmers have until October 31, 2025, to request ELRP 2023/2023 FW support.
For the latest information, USDA requests producers to go to the Supplemental Disaster Assistance public landing page located at fsa.usda.gov, which monitors program availability and is updated continuously.
