Farm Service Agency

Public Affairs Staff

1400 Independence Ave SW

Stop 0506, Room 3624-South

Washington, D.C. 20250-0506

Release No. 1514.08

Decision Allows Farmers and Ranchers to Apply for USDA Assistance

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture designated two counties in California as primary natural disaster areas.

Sonoma County, Calif., was designated as a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by a freeze that occurred from April 16, 2008, through April 24, 2008. Farm operators in Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa and Solano counties in California also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

San Luis Obispo County, Calif., was designated as a primary natural disaster area because of losses caused by extremely high temperatures that occurred from June 17, 2008, through June 22, 2008. Farm operators in Kern, Kings, Monterey and Santa Barbara in California also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

Farm operators in Curry and Josephine counties in the adjacent state of Oregon also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

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

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