Agricultural News
USDA Designates 56 Counties in Oklahoma as Primary Natural Disaster Areas
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:34:58 CDT
Francie Tolle, Oklahoma State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 56 counties in Oklahoma as primary natural disaster areas due to losses caused by extreme drought.
Those counties are: Alfalfa, Atoka, Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Choctaw, Cimarron, Coal, Comanche, Cotton, Craig, Creek, Custer, Dewey, Ellis, Garfield, Garvin, Grady, Grant, Greer, Harmon, Harper, Hughes, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnston, Kay, Kingfisher, Kiowa, Latimer, LeFlore, Logan, Love, Major, Marshall, McClain, McCurtain, Noble, Nowata, Osage, Pawnee, Payne, Pittsburg, Pushmataha, Roger Mills, Stephens, Texas, Tillman, Washington, Washita, Woods, and Woodward.
Farm operators in the 18 Oklahoma counties listed below also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous to the designated counties.
Those counties are: Adair, Cleveland, Delaware, Haskell, Lincoln, Mayes, McIntosh, Murray, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, Okmulgee, Ottawa, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Rogers, Seminole, Sequoyah, and Tulsa.
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on July 12, 2012, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from 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.
Recent changes in the disaster program will provide faster and more flexible assistance to farmers devastated by natural disasters. There are three significant improvements related to Secretarial disaster designations: a final rule that simplifies the process for Secretarial disaster designations and will result in a 40 percent reduction in processing time for most counties affected by disasters; a reduced interest rate for emergency loans that effectively lowers the current rate from 3.75 percent to 2.25 percent; and a payment reduction on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands qualified for emergency haying and grazing in 2012, from 25 to 10 percent.
USDA encourages all farmers to contact their crop insurance companies and local FSA offices, as applicable, to report damages to crops or livestock loss. In addition, USDA reminds livestock producers to keep thorough records of losses, including additional expenses for such things as feed purchased due to lost supplies. Additional resources to help farmers deal with drought may be found by clicking here.
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