USDA Designates Entire State of Alabama as a Primary Natural Disaster Area

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2010 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated the entire state of Alabama, all 67 counties, as a natural disaster area due to losses caused by drought and excessive heat that began March 1, 2010, and continues.
    “President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to a wide variety of crops and prevented farmers from harvesting these crops,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses.”
   Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:
Florida              
 
Escambia         Holmes            Jackson            Okaloosa         Santa Rosa      Walton

Georgia                 
 
Carroll                  Clay            Floyd               Heard              Quitman          Troup
Chattahoochee     Dade           Haralson          Muscogee        Seminole         Walker

Chattooga       Early    Harris  Polk     Stewart

Mississippi             
  Clarke              Greene             Jackson            Lauderdale      Monroe            Tishomingo
George            Itawamba        Kemper           Lowndes         Noxubee          Wayne

Tennessee               
  Franklin                       Hardin                         Lincoln                        Wayne                                                       
Giles                            Lawrence                    Marion

   All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas Dec. 17, 2010, 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.
   FSA news releases are available on FSA’s website at http://www.fsa.usda.gov via the “News and Events” link.


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