Usda Designates Counties As Natural Disaster Areas

   WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 15 counties in Nebraska as primary natural disaster areas due to flooding that began May 1, 2011, and continues.

 

   “This action provides help to hundreds of producers who suffered significant losses to corn, soybeans, dry beans, sugar beets, wheat, and forage crops, as well as serious damage to farm structures,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

 

The counties are:

 

Boyd                                       Dixon                                      Otoe

Burt                                         Douglas                                   Richardson

Cass                                         Knox                                       Sarpy

Cedar                                      Lincoln                                    Thurston

Dakota                                    Nemaha                                   Washington

 

 

Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Nebraska also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:

 

Antelope                                 Hayes                                      McPherson

Cuming                                   Holt                                         Pawnee

Custer                                      Johnson                                   Perkins

Dawson                                   Keith                                       Pierce

Dodge                                     Keya Paha                               Rock

Frontier                                   Lancaster                                 Saunders

Gage                                        Logan                                      Wayne

 

Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and South Dakota also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:

Iowa                                      

Fremont                       Mills                            Pottawattamie

Harrison                      Monona                       Woodbury

Kansas                                  

Brown                         Doniphan                    Nemaha

Missouri                               

Atchison                      Holt                            

South Dakota                       

Bon Homme                Clay                             Union

Charles Mix                 Gregory                       Yankton

 

   All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas July 18, 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.