Farm Service Agency

Public Affairs Staff

1400 Independence Ave SW

Stop 0506, Room 3624-South

Washington, D.C. 20250-0506

Release No. 1507.07

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2007 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated four California counties as primary natural disaster areas.

Monterey County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Nov. 1, 2006, and continuing. Fresno, Kings, San Benito, San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz counties in California are also eligible because they are contiguous counties.

Nevada County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought and cold temperatures that occurred from Oct. 1, 2006, and continuing. Place, Sierra and Yuba counties in California are also eligible because they are contiguous counties. In addition, Washoe County in the adjacent state of Nevada is also eligible because it is a contiguous county.

Sutter County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by severe high temperatures and low humidity that occurred from March 11, 2007, through March 21, 2007. Butte, Colusa, Place, Sacramento, Yolo and Yuba counties in California are also eligible because they are contiguous counties.

Ventura County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Jan. 1, 2007, and continuing. Kern, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties in California are also eligible because they are contiguous counties.

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on Aug. 14, 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.