COLUMBUS – USDA’s Farm Service Agency announced that 36 Ohio counties are eligible for USDA emergency farm loans due to losses caused by excessive rain, flooding, and army worms that occurred earlier this year.
The assistance will help Ohio farmers recover from reduced yields due to flooding that delayed corn and soybean planting, and a worm infestation that destroyed much of the area’s wheat crop.
Primary counties. Brown, Clermont, Defiance, Fulton, Gallia, Hancock, Jackson, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Vinton, and Wyandot counties were named as primary disaster areas.
Also eligible because they are contiguous, are Adams, Allen, Athens, Clinton, Crawford, Erie, Hamilton, Hardin, Henry, Highland, Hocking, Lawrence, Lucas, Marion, Meigs, Pike, Ross, Sandusky, Scioto, Seneca, Van Wert, Warren, Williams, and Wood counties.
This designation makes all qualified farm operators in those counties eligible for low-interest EM loans from the Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met.
Farmers in eligible counties have eight months to apply for the loans to help cover part of their actual losses.
FSA has a variety of programs available, in addition to the emergency loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity. Interested farmers may contact the local FSA offices for further information.
