San Saba County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director, Valerie Cortinovis urges producers who want to purchase coverage through the Non-insurable Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) to do so before the sales closing date of December 1, 2011.NAP provides financial assistance to producers of non-insurable crops when low yields/grazing loss, loss of inventory or prevented planting occur due to normal disasters. The following crops have a NAP application closing date of Dec. 1, 2011: grazing and forage/hay on native and improved grass, honey, potatoes, radishes, grapes and caneberries.“Purchasing a crop insurance policy is an easy way for producers to practice risk management,” said Cortinovis. “The 2011 crop year has proved that natural disasters can directly affect the profitability and recovery of agricultural operations,” she said. In order to meet eligibility requirements for NAP, crops must be noninsurable, commercially-produced agricultural commodity crops for which the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance is not available. In the event of a natural disaster, NAP covers the amount of loss greater than 50 percent of the expected production based on the approved yield and reported acreage. Eligible producers can apply for coverage using form CCC-471, “Application for Coverage.” Producers must file the application and service fee by the Dec. 1st deadline. The service fee is the lesser of $250 per crop or $750 per producer per administrative county, not to exceed a total of $1,875 for a producer with farming interests in multiple counties. For more information on sales closing dates and NAP, contact the San Saba County FSA office at 325 372-3091.