USDA designates three Iowa counties as primary natural disaster areas

by | Jun 24, 2022 | 5 Ag Stories, News

This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or the refinance of certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for 8 or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.

The triggering disaster is a drought, with Iowa being the impacted area. The application deadline is January 31, 2023, for the primary counties eligible (Monona, Plymouth, and Woodbury). The contiguous counties that are also eligible are Iowa: Cherokee, Crawford, Harrison, Ida, O?Brien, and Sioux; Nebraska: Burt, Dakota, and Thurston; and South Dakota: Union.

For applications with emergency farm loans you can click here.

For more information and resources, you can visit farmers.gov. From there you can access the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster Assistance-at-a-Glance facts sheet, and the Farm Loan Discovery Tool.