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Farm Service Agency Public Affairs Staff 1400 Independence Ave SW Stop 0506, Room 3624-South Washington, D.C. 20250-0506
Release No. 1437.08
Latawnya Dia (202) 720-7962
Decision Allows Farmers and Ranchers to Apply for USDA Assistance
WASHINGTON, June 11, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated 22 counties in Mississippi as natural disaster areas.
Seventeen counties in Mississippi were designated primary natural disaster areas because of losses caused by freezing temperatures that occurred on April 15, 2008. Those counties are:
Adams | Covington | Jefferson | Lamar | Pike | Walthall |
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Claiborne | Forrest | Jefferson Davis | Lawrence | Simpson | Warren |
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Clarke | Hinds | Jones | Perry | Smith | |
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Farm operators in the following counties listed below in Mississippi also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
Amite | Greene | Lauderdale | Marion | Rankin | Wayne |
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Copiah | Issaquena | Lincoln | Newton | Scott | Wilkinson |
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Franklin | Jasper | Madison | Pearl River | Stone | Yazoo |
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George | | | | | |
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Farm operators in the counties and parishes in the adjacent states of Alabama and Louisiana also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties and parishes are contiguous.
Choctaw
Concordia, East Carroll, Madison, Tangipahoa, Tensas and Washington
Adams, Claiborne, Jefferson Warren and Wilkinson counties in Mississippi were designated as primary natural disaster areas because of losses caused by flooding that occurred from March 1, 2008, and continuing. Farm operators in Amite, Copiah, Franklin, Hind, Issaquena, Lincoln and Yazoo counties in Mississippi also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
Farm operators in Concordia, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Madison, Tensas and West Feliciana parishes in the adjacent state of Louisiana also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their parishes are contiguous.
All counties and parishes listed above were designated natural disaster areas on June 6, 2008, 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 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.
FSA news releases are available on FSA's Web site at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov via the "News and Events" link.
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