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USDA designates 8 counties in Iowa as primary natural disaster areasThe U.S. Department of Agriculture designated Calhoun, Grundy, Hamilton, Hardin, Ida, Sac, Webster and Woodbury counties in Iowa as primary natural disaster areas because of losses caused by severe storms, hail and flooding that occurred from Aug. 1 through Aug. 9. "President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to the area and serious harm to farms in Iowa," said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. "These designations will provide help to farmers who suffered significant production losses to field crops such as corn and soybeans, truck crops such as onions, peppers, eggplant, cane fruits, melons, squash and sweet corn, and forage crops." Farm operators in the counties listed below in Iowa also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous. Those counties are: Black Hawk, Cherokee, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Boone, Crawford, Marshall, Story, Buena Vista, Franklin, Monona, Tama, Butler, Greene, Plymouth, Wright and Carroll. Farm operators in the counties listed below in the adjacent states of Nebraska and South Dakota also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous. Nebraska: Dakota and Thurston South Dakota: Union All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas Sept. 10, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency, 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 Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program, which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; 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.
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