Farm Service Agency

Public Affairs Staff

1400 Independence Ave SW

Stop 0506, Room 3624-South

Washington, D.C. 20250-0506

Release No. 1463.08

Decision Allows Farmers and Ranchers to Apply for USDA Assistance

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated three counties in California as primary natural disaster areas.

Contra Costa County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Jan. 1, 2008, and continuing. Farm operators in Alameda, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Solano counties in California also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

Madera County was designated a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Oct. 1, 2007, through May 31, 2007. Farm operators in Fresno, Mariposa, Merced, Mono and Tuolumne counties in California also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

Shasta County was designated as a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by drought that occurred from Feb. 10, 2008, and continuing. Farm operators in Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Tehama, Trinity and Siskiyou counties in California also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on July 30, 2008, 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 are available on FSA's Web site at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov via the "News and Events" link.