Georgia producers impacted by Hurricane Helene will be able to apply for disaster relief through the Hurricane Helene Block Grant beginning March 16th. We caught up with Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper to learn more.
Commissioner Harper said, “The Department of Agriculture and USDA reached a final agreement on our block grant and our work plan and starting on Monday, March 16th, the application will go live on our website at farmrecovery.com and that application period will stay open until April 27th at midnight. So we’re just making sure folks know that and want to encourage them that if they were part of the damages sustained from Hurricane Helene, if they fall within the commodity categories that are available through the block grant, we want to encourage them to apply.“
“But at the same time, the block grant is utilized to cover areas that USDA and FSA traditionally do not cover during disasters like this, primarily focused on future losses on long-term commodities like pecans and timber and poultry. But there’s also some things in there related to conception losses in beef, cattle and dairy and some things related to some long-term fruits like blueberries and citrus, as well as some infrastructure,” said Harper.
“So all of that information is on our website, but it is exciting. We’re glad that we got this across the finish line. And soon as that application period closes and we go working through those applications, we look forward to getting that 530 plus million dollars out to the farmers, landowners and ranchers across our state who need it to help them continue to recover,” said Harper.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.