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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. 1470.08
Latawnya Dia (202) 720-7962
Decision Allows Farmers and Ranchers to Apply for USDA Assistance
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated 23 New York counties as primary natural disaster areas.
The following 17 New York counties were designated primary disaster areas because of losses caused by hail, high winds and excessive rain that occurred on June 16, 2008. Those counties are:
Albany | Genesee | Ontario | Schoharie |
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Columbia | Greene | Orange | Ulster |
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Dutchess | Monroe | Orleans | Wayne |
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Erie | Onondaga | Rockland | Westchester |
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Fulton | | | |
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Farm operators in the New York counties listed below also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
Bronx | Hamilton | Oswego | Seneca |
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Cattaraugus | Herkimer | Otsego | Steuben |
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Cayuga | Livingston | Putnam | Sullivan |
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Chautauqua | Madison | Rensselaer | Wyoming |
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Cortland | Montgomery | Saratoga | Yates |
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Delaware | Niagara | Schenectady | |
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Farm operators in the counties listed below in the adjacent states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
Fairfield and Litchfield
Berkshire
Bergen, Passaic and Sussex
Pike
Broome County was designated as a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by excessive heat that occurred from June 5, 2008, through June 9, 2008. Farm operators in Chenango, Cortland, Delaware and Tioga counties in New York also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous. Farm operators in Susquehanna and Wayne counties in the adjacent state of Pennsylvania also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
Livingston, Orange, Oswego, Rockland and Wayne counties in New York were designated as primary disaster areas because of losses caused by hail, high winds and excessive rain that occurred from May 20, 2008, through June 13, 2008. Farm operators in the New York counties listed below also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
Allegany | Lewis | Onondaga | Sullivan |
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Cayuga | Madison | Ontario | Ulster |
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Dutchess | Monroe | Putnam | Westchester |
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Genesee | Oneida | Steuben | Wyoming |
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Jefferson | | | |
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Farm operators in the counties listed below in the adjacent states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.
Bergen, Passaic and Sussex
Pike
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on Aug. 11, 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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