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By Amy Belcher

Special to The Lowndes Signal

Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate announced Nov. 25 that US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack has designated three Alabama counties as primary natural disaster areas due to a recent drought. Nine additional counties, including Lowndes and Butler counties, were listed as contiguous disaster counties.

“The drought hit farmers in this part of the state during the peak of growing season,” Pate said. “We hope this disaster relief from USDA will ease some of the financial burdens. We encourage farmers to reach out to their local USDA offices for details about available funding.”

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor (see http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/), these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.

The three primary Alabama counties included in the disaster designation are Dallas, Perry and Wilcox. There are nine contiguous counties including Autauga, Bibb, Butler, Chilton, Clark, Hale, Lowndes, Marengo and Monroe. 

Other counties in Alabama may have already been designated as natural disaster counties if they had previously met the requirements found under 7 CFR 759.5(a) for the current crop year.

A Secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in primary counties and counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loan assistance, provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration (9-18-24) to apply for emergency loans. 

The agency considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator.

Farmers interested in learning about program options or wanting to verify eligibility should visit https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-loan-programs. To find local USDA Service Centers at https://www.farmers.gov/working-with-us/service-center-locator. 

Amy Belcher is Communications Director for the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.