The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 60 counties in Texas as primary natural disaster areas due to losses and damages caused by a recent drought.
In a statement released this week, USDA designated the counties of the Texas Panhandle and South Plains, along with those along the Red River and in northeastern Texas. They include the following:
Archer
Armstrong
Bailey
Baylor
Bowie
Briscoe
Carson
Cass
Castro
Childress
Cochran
Collingsworth
Cottle
Crosby
Dallam
Deaf Smith
Dickens
Donley
Floyd
Foard
Garza
Gray
Hale
Hall
Hansford
Hardeman
Harrison
Hartley
Haskell
Hemphill
Hockley
Hutchinson
Kent
King
Knox
Lamar
Lamb
Lipscomb
Lubbock
Lynn
Marion
Moore
Morris
Motley
Ochiltree
Oldham
Parmer
Potter
Randall
Red River
Roberts
Sherman
Stonewall
Swisher
Terry
Titus
Wheeler
Wichita
Wilbarger
Yoakum
Farmers and ranchers in contiguous counties in Texas also qualify for natural disaster assistance. Those counties are:
Borden
Camp
Clay
Dawson
Delta
Fannin
Fisher
Franklin
Gaines
Gregg
Jack
Jones
Panola
Rusk
Scurry
Shackelford
Throckmorton
Upshur
Young
Farmers and ranchers in contiguous counties and parishes in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma also qualify for natural disaster assistance.
Qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) emergency (EM) loans, provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties and parishes have eight months from the date of the declaration—March 8, 2018—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 the impacts of this disaster.
Other FSA programs that can provide assistance, but may not require a disaster declaration, include: Operating and Farm Ownership Loans; the Emergency Conservation Program; Livestock Forage Disaster Program; Livestock Indemnity Program; Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program; and the Tree 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.