From staff reports
Houston is one of 152 Georgia counties declared a natural disaster area because of the record setting cold temperatures and freezing conditions that occurred from April 6 through April 9.
The designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a release, allows farmers and ranchers in Houston, Peach, Bibb, Crawford, Dooley, Twiggs, Macon, Peach and all but one other county in the state to apply to apply for USDA assistance.
Besides the 152 designated counties, six contiguous counties in Georgia and contiguous counties in Alabama, Florida and North and South Carolina are also included.
All of these counties were designated natural disaster areas May 18, 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 eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses.
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.
FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
The 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 www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA
