USDA Streamlines Disaster Designation Process

USDA Streamlines Disaster Designation Process

USDA Streamlines Disaster Designation Process

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Good news for the hot and dry drought areas of the country, the USDA has announced a package of program improvements that will deliver faster and more flexible assistance to farmers and ranchers devastated by severe weather or natural disasters.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack shares more.

Vilsack: “USDA is going to do everything it can streamline the disaster designation process and alleive people of concerns about whether or not things will be made on a timely basis. We are going to reduce the interest rate on emergency loans. It will be affected July 15th at 2.25 percent. We’ll do what we can on CRP to make it more possible to use emergency hay and grazing.”

These three main areas of improvement to the decades-old USDA programs and process will simplify the process for Secretarial disaster designations and result in a 40 percent reduction in processing time for most counties affected by disaster; secondly reduces the interest rate on emergency loans by 150 basis points; and also provides a payment reduction on CRP lands qualified for emergency haying and grazing in 2012 from 25 to 10 percent.

Effective yesterday 1,016 primary counties in 26 states were designated as natural disaster areas, making all qualified farm operators in those designated areas eligible for low interest emergency loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency provided eligibility requirements are met.

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
 

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