WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2011 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 150 counties in Georgia as primary natural disaster areas due to an ongoing drought and excessive heat that has damaged thousands of acres of crops.
“Many producers have lost their crops and ultimately their livelihood due to the devastation caused by the drought,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “President Obama and I want these farmers and ranchers to know that we are here for them and we will support them through the recovery process and help them once again become productive suppliers of food, fiber and fuel that keep America prospering. This designation will provide that support.”
The drought — which began April 15, 2011, and continues — caused 30 percent or more loss of forage crops, pasture, grain crops, cotton, peanuts and tobacco in the following counties:
Appling Coffee Gordon McDuffie Sumter
Atkinson Colquitt Grady McIntosh Taliaferro
Bacon Columbia Gwinnett Meriwether Tattnall
Baker Cook Habersham Miller Taylor
Banks Coweta Hall Mitchell Telfair
Barrow Crawford Hancock Monroe Terrell
Bartow Crisp Haralson Montgomery Thomas
Ben Hill Dade Harris Morgan Tift
Berrien Dawson Hart Murray Toombs
Bibb De Kalb Heard Oconee Towns
Bleckley Decatur Henry Oglethorpe Treutlen
Brantley Dodge Houston Paulding Troup
Brooks Dooly Irwin Peach Turner
Bryan Dougherty Jackson Pickens Twiggs
Bulloch Douglas Jeff Davis Pierce Union
Burke Early Jefferson Pike Upson
Butts Echols Jenkins Polk Walker
Calhoun Effingham Johnson Pulaski Walton
Camden Elbert Lamar Putnam Ware
Candler Emanuel Lanier Quitman Warren
Carroll Evans Laurens Rabun Washington
Catoosa Fannin Lee Randolph Wayne
Charlton Fayette Liberty Richmond Webster
Chatham Floyd Lincoln Rockdale Wheeler
Chattooga Forsyth Long Schley White
Cherokee Franklin Lowndes Screven Whitfield
Clarke Fulton Lumpkin Seminole Wilcox
Clay Gilmer Macon Spalding Wilkes
Clinch Glascock Madison Stephens Wilkinson
Cobb Glynn Marion Stewart Worth
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Georgia also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:
Baldwin Clayton Jasper Muscogee Talbot
Chattahoochee Greene Jones Newton
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:
Alabama:
Barbour Chambers Cherokee Cleburne De Kalb Henry
Houston Jackson Lee Randolph Russell
Florida:
Baker Columbia Gadsden Hamilton Jackson
Leon Jefferson Madison Nassau
North Carolina:
Cherokee Clay Jackson Macon
South Carolina:
Abbeville Allendale Barnwell Hampton McCormick
Aiken Anderson Edgefield Jasper Oconee
Tennessee:
Bradley Hamilton Marion Polk
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas Sept. 7, 2011, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
USDA also has made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Emergency Conservation Program; Federal Crop Insurance; and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.