5 Things to Know About the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program
Lyndi Allen
March 20, 2025

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced up to $10 billion issued directly to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) for the 2024 crop year.
Officially, corn will have a payment rate of $42.91 per acre for the 2024 crop year.
Authorized by the American Relief Act, 2025, these economic relief payments are based on planted and prevented planted crop acres for eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year.
The sign-up period starts now and will run through August 15, 2025. The USDA will mail pre-filled applications to farmers over the coming days. Farmers can also go online or to their local Farm Service Agency to complete the process.

By Lindsay Croke
•
April 16, 2026
Lindsay Croke is the IL Corn Director of Communications and Marketing today, but she’s served many roles over her 20+ years at IL Corn and brings a lot of historical perspective of IL Corn’s work and goals to IL Corn TV show as a host. We sat down with Lindsay to figure out how she landed at IL Corn, what the work here has meant to her and to our industry, and why she sticks around.



