Farm Service Agency

Public Affairs Staff

1400 Independence Ave SW

Stop 0506, Room 3624-South

Washington, D.C. 20250-0506

Release No. 1503.07

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2007 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated seven California counties as primary natural disaster areas.

Alameda County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by continuing drought that began on Oct. 1, 2006. Also eligible in California because they are contiguous counties are Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Stanislaus counties.

Butte and Yuba counties were designated as primary natural disaster areas because of losses due to unseasonably high temperatures and low humidity that occurred from March 7, 2007, through March 15, 2007. Also eligible because they are contiguous counties are Colusa, Glenn, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sierra, Sutter and Tehama counties.

Madera County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Oct. 15, 2006, through March 26, 2007. Also eligible in California because they are contiguous counties are Fresno, Mariposa, Merced, Mono and Tuolumne counties.

Sacramento County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Oct. 1, 2006, through April 30, 2007. Also eligible in California because they are contiguous counties are Amador, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Placer, San Joaquin, Solano, Sutter and Yolo counties.

Solano County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Dec. 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007. Also eligible in California because they are contiguous counties are Contra Costa, Napa, Sacramento, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

Tehama County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Nov. 1, 2006, through April 10, 2007. Also eligible in California because they are contiguous counties are Butte, Glenn, Mendocino, Plumas, Shasta and Trinity counties.

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on Aug. 9, 2007, 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 and media advisories are available on FSA’s Web site at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov via the “News and Events” link.