Decision allows farmers and ranchers to apply for USDA assistance

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2008 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture
designated nine counties in Oklahoma as primary natural disaster areas because of losses caused by the combined effects of drought, extreme heat and high winds that occurred from Jan. 1, 2008, and continuing.  Those counties are:

Beaver,  Ellis,  Texas, Cimarron, Harper,  Woods, Dewey,  Roger Mills, Woodward

Farm operators in Alfalfa, Beckham, Blaine, Custer and Major counties in Oklahoma also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

Farm operators in counties in the adjacent states of Arkansas,
Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas listed below also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

Arkansas

Benton,  Little River, Scott,  Sevier, Crawford, Polk, Sebastian, Washington

Colorado
Baca

Kansas

Barber,  Cowley,  Morton,
Chautauqua, Harper,  Seward,
Cherokee, Labette,  Steven,
Clark,  Meade,  Summer,
Comanche, Montgomery

Missouri
McDonald and Newton

New Mexico
Union

Texas

Bowie,  Dallam,  Hemphill, Red River, Childress, Fannin,  Lamar,  Sherman,
Clay,  Grayson,  Lipscomb, Wheeler,
Collingsworth, Hansford, Montague, Wichita,
Cooke,  Hardeman, Ochiltree, Wilbarger

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on
July 16, 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.