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Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC)

Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC)

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ENDED (closed to applications Jan 10, 2025). One-time USDA program that helped specialty-crop producers (fruit, vegetable, nut, nursery, honey, hops, and herb growers) offset 2025 marketing costs. Kept here as a reference for how it worked in case a similar program returns; there is no current application window.
Value
Ended Jan 2025 — reference only (paid producers by sales tier, up to a $125,000 per-person cap)
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https://www.fsa.usda.gov/resources/programs/marketing-assistance-specialty-crops-masc
[!WARNING]
This program has ended. The Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) program closed to new applications on January 10, 2025. USDA issued a first round of payments (~$900M) in spring 2025 and a second round of up to $1.3B on April 29, 2025. No further application window has been announced. Source: fsa.usda.gov news 2025-05-05

Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) — USDA fact sheet (archived)

This page holds the USDA FSA fact sheet PDF (dated December 2024) for the one-time Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops program. The program ran in early 2025 to help specialty crop growers (fruit, vegetable, nut, nursery, honey, hops, herb, and similar producers) offset rising marketing costs.

Who it was for

Specialty crop producers who, in 2023 or 2024:
  • Had an ownership share and shared in the risk of producing a specialty crop sold in calendar year 2025
  • Were a US citizen, resident alien, or US-organized entity (or qualifying foreign entity)
  • Had an average adjusted gross income under $900,000 across 2021–2023 (unless 75%+ of AGI came from farming)
  • Complied with USDA conservation-compliance and controlled-substance rules
Eligible crops: fruit (fresh or dried), vegetables (including dry edible beans, mushrooms, vegetable seed), tree nuts, nursery crops, Christmas trees, floriculture, culinary and medicinal herbs and spices, honey, hops, maple sap, tea, turfgrass, grass seed.
Not eligible: cotton, grain, oilseeds, peanuts, hemp, forage/hay, sugar beets, sugarcane, tobacco, fish, livestock, dairy, eggs, tofu.

How payments worked

Payments were tiered by the producer's total specialty crop sales for 2023 or 2024 (producer's choice), with a $125,000 per-person payment cap. Higher sales tiers got progressively smaller payment percentages. Final payment factors were set after the application window closed. Source: fact sheet (PDF below), American Farm Bureau analysis

Why this page is still here

The fact sheet PDF below is preserved as a reference for producers who applied and want to understand how payments were calculated, and as a record of what the program covered in case a similar one is announced. The official program page is at fsa.usda.gov/resources/programs/marketing-assistance-specialty-crops-masc.

For current farmer assistance in Nevada County

If you're a local specialty crop producer looking for active programs, browse the Farmer category in the resources index for current grants, cost-share programs, and technical assistance.
Note on duplicates: Two sibling entries with the same filename exist in this database (168a4ee695208127ab4dc8297f2f432d and 168a4ee69520811ea8d1e56c6a88d9c7) but both are empty shells — this page (168a4ee6952081d7ab4dd2d514bce9ae) holds the actual PDF and is the canonical record.