New Hurricane Idalia report takes stock of significant agricultural damages

The dust has settled since Hurricane Idalia made a devastating sweep over northern Florida in late August, but farmers, ranchers and food producers in are still picking up the pieces from the storm’s destruction.

The recent expansion of the USDA’s hurricane crop insurance policy to include 2023 storms is welcome news. So far, the USDA has provided farmers with $854 million to help in the Hurricane Idalia recovery, with an additional $84.8 million paid out in indemnities for hurricane-related losses through the USDA’s new Tropical Storm Option for its Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index program, endorsed earlier this year.

In total, through the USDA program, producers have received total of over $170 million in crop insurance payments that will directly help farmers and rural communities recover from Hurricane Idalia, according to the agency.

While $170 million can do a lot of good, how does it compare to the most recent assessment of Hurricane Idalia’s damage?

Crop damage, by the numbers

According to a recently released preliminary assessment report of agricultural losses and damages from Hurricane Idalia by the University of Florida and Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, a total of 3.3 million acres of agricultural land were affected by Hurricane Idalia.

“These numbers give us an idea of the significance of the damage and the parts of the state that were affected by Hurricane Idalia. I think it also brings a voice to those communities,” Christa Court, director of the University of Florida’s IFAS economic impact analysis program and assistant professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department, said in a briefing.  

Related news: Hurricane Idalia slams Florida's Big Bend region, spares most specialty crop growers

The report's assessment seeks to shed light on the broad footprint of agriculture in this affected region, the value of agriculture and the importance to the impacted communities, she continued.

“We're trying to get these communities back into production since they've been so significantly impacted,” Court told reporters.

According to the assessment, affected acreage for fresh produce includes:

• Citrus — 186,700 total affected acres, including bearing and nonbearing acres.

• Fruit (noncitrus) and tree nuts — 5,100 acres.

• Vegetables and melons — 54,100 acres.

• Greenhouse and nursery — 37,300 affected acres

What’s more, the commodity groups most affected — in terms of economic value — by hurricane conditions include:

• Animals and animal products — value of production on affected Florida acres totaling $1,232,200,000.

• Field and row crops — production value of affected acres totaling $313,600,000.

• Vegetables and melons — production value of total affected acres totaling $750,100,000.

The total losses for all commodity groups totals $3,929,000,000. These production loss estimates, according to the report, convey the percent value of annual production for the calendar or marketing year, depending on the crop.

In addition to production losses, infrastructure is another sizable area of loss for Florida’s food producers. In the report, survey respondents reported damage or destruction to infrastructure such as greenhouses, growing structures, irrigation systems, farm buildings, equipment fences and other structures. The total damages were assessed at a value of $2.55 billion of estimated buildings at risk from the hurricane and $568.8 million estimated value of machinery and equipment at risk from the impact of Hurricane Idalia, according to the report.