The U. S. Department of Agriculture designates the entire state of Nevada, which comprises 16 counties and one independent city, as a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought and wildfires that occurred on Jan. 1 and continuing.
Farm operators in the certain counties in Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon and Utah also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
All counties listed were designated disaster areas on Nov. 26, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in the eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses, security available and repayment ability.
The Farm Service Agency will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. Farmers Service Agency has a variety of programs, in addition to the emergency loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
USDA has also made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including 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.
Farm Service Agency releases are available on Web site www.fsa.usda.gov via the News and Events link.
