Drought conditions have prompted The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to declare 37 Kansas counties as primary natural disaster areas and qualify for Federal assistance.
The counties are Cheyenne, Graham, Lane, Phillips, Sherman, Clark, Grant, Logan, Rawlins, Stanton, Comanche, Gray, Meade, Rooks, Stevens, Decatur, Greeley, Morton, Rush, Thomas, Ellis, Hamilton, Ness, Scott, Trego, Finney, Haskell, Norton, Seward, Wallace, Ford, Hodgeman, Pawnee, Sheridan, Wichita, Gove and Kearny.
“Our hearts go out to those Kansas farmers and ranchers affected by recent natural disasters,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “President Obama and I are committed to ensuring that agriculture remains a bright spot in our nation’s economy by sustaining the successes of America’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities through these difficult times. We’re also telling Kansas producers that USDA stands with you and your communities when severe weather and natural disasters threaten to disrupt your livelihood.”
Farmers and ranchers in Barber, Edwards, Osborne, Smith, Barton, Kiowa, Russell, Stafford in Kansas also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.
Those counties are:Colorado: Baca, Kiowa, Prowers, Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Yuma, Nebraska: Dundy, Furnas, Hitchcock, Franklin, Harlan, Red WillowOklahoma: Beaver, Cimarron, Harper, Texas, Woods
These counties were designated natural disaster areas on Jan. 15, 2014, making all qualified and eligible farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). Farmers in eligible counties have eight months starting January 15th to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA offers a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
Assistance to producers impacted by the drought included:
Extended emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres, freeing up 2.8 million acres and $200 million in forage and feed for ranchers during a challenging time.
Purchase of $170 million of pork, lamb, chicken, and catfish for federal food nutrition assistance programs, including food banks, to help relieve pressure on American livestock producers and bring the nation's meat supply in line with demand.
Reduced the emergency loan rate, from 3.75 percent to 2.875 percent and making emergency loans available earlier in the season.Allowing haying or grazing of cover crops without impacting the insurability of planted 2013 spring crops.
USDA working with crop insurance companies to provide flexibility to farmers, and one-third of all policyholders took advantage of the extended payment period.
Authorize $16 million in existing funds from the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to target states experiencing exceptional and extreme drought.
Transfer $14 million in unobligated program funds into the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) to help farmers and ranchers rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters and for carrying out emergency water conservation measures in periods of severe drought.
Authorize haying and grazing of Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) easement areas in drought-affected areas where haying and grazing is consistent with conservation of wildlife habitat and wetlands.Lower the penalty on CRP acres used for emergency haying or grazing, from 25 percent to 10 percent in 2012.
Simplify the Secretarial disaster designation process and reduced the time it takes to designate counties affected by disasters by 40 percent.
Source - http://www.wibw.com/
