USDA will give farmers an extra week, through April 16, to sign up for crop loss disaster assistance.  That should not affect the timing of payments under the program, said Farm Service Agency Administrator Keith Kelly.

"We're doing this because we had such a high volume of applications and because we made some changes recently broadening eligibility for the multi-year loss assistance portion," he added.

More than $2 billion was authorized by Congress to reimburse farmers who suffered crop losses from natural disasters in 1998 or in at least three of the years from 1994-98.