The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a number of Texas counties as primary natural disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought.
Primary counties affected include: Angelina, Borden, Brown, Callahan, Coke, Concho, Fisher, Garza, Glasscock, Hardin, Hays, Howard, Kent, Liberty, McCulloch, Mitchell, Nolan, Reagan, San Jacinto, Schleicher, Smith, Taylor, Tom Green, Trinity, Tyler and Wood.
Contiguous counties affected include: Blanco, Borden, Caldwell, Camp, Cherokee, Coleman, Comal, Crockett, Crosby, Dickens, Fannin, Franklin, Garza, Grayson, Gregg, Guadalupe, Henderson, Hopkins, Howard, Irion, Jones, Kimble, King, Lamar, McCulloch, Menard, Newton, Rains, Reagan, Runnels, Rusk, Sabine, Scurry, Shelby, Sterling, Stonewall, Sutton, Taylor, Travis, Upshur and Van Zandt.
All counties listed as primary or contiguous designated natural disaster areas on Oct. 28, 2015, 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.
For more information contact your local FSA office.