(NAFB) – The Department of Agriculture is providing additional time for livestock and poultry producers to apply for the Pandemic Livestock Indemnity Program, or PLIP.

Producers who suffered losses during the pandemic due to insufficient access to processing may now apply for assistance for those losses and the cost of depopulation and disposal of the animals through October 12, 2021, rather than the original deadline of September 17, 2021. PLIP is part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative.

Farm Service Agency Administrator Zach Ducheneaux states, “We want to ensure that all eligible producers have the opportunity to apply for this critical assistance.”

PLIP provides payments to producers for losses of livestock or poultry depopulated from March 1, 2020, through December 26, 2020, due to insufficient processing access as a result of the pandemic. Payments are based on 80 percent of the fair market value of the livestock and poultry and for the cost of depopulation and disposal of the animal.

Eligible livestock and poultry include swine, chickens and turkeys.