Farmers seeking assistance for crops damaged in 2009 have until Friday, July 29, to apply for help under the Revenue Assistance Payments Program (SURE).

SURE provides crop disaster assistance to eligible Swain and Jackson County producers on farms that lost crop production or quality.

To be eligible, producers must have suffered at least a 10 percent production loss on a crop of economic significance and have insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program.

The farm must also be in a county that was declared a primary disaster county or contiguous county by the Secretary of Agriculture or have actual production on a farm that was less than 50 percent of the normal production on the farm because of a natural disaster. For more information, visit the Swain/Jackson County FSA office or disaster.fsa.usda.gov.