USDA Designates Ag Disaster Counties

WASHINGTON - Aug 25/05 - SNS -- The USDA designated 112 counties in Missouri as primary agricultural disaster areas, making all qualified farm operators eligible for low-interest emergency (EM) loans from the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA).

All Missouri counties were designated as primary disaster areas, except Atchison and Holt Counties, due to losses caused by drought that occurred from Jan. 1, 2005, and continuing.

Also eligible because they are contiguous are Missouri’s Atchison County, Holt County and the independent city of St. Louis. In addition, the following counties are contiguous:

Arkansas -- Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Craighead, Fulton, Greene, Marion, Mississippi, Randolph, Sharp

Illinois -- Adams, Alexander, Calhoun, Hancock, Jackson, Jersey, Madison, Monroe, Pike, Randolph, St. Clair, Union

Iowa -- Appanoose, Davis, Decatur, Lee, Page, Ringgold, Taylor, Van Buren, Wayne

Kansas -- Atchison, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Doniphan, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, Wyandotte

Kentucky -- Ballard, Carlisle, Fulton, Hickman

Oklahoma -- Delaware, Ottawa

Tennessee -- Dyer, Lake

These counties were designated on Aug. 24, 2005, making all qualified farm operators eligible for EM loans, provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for the loans to help cover part of their actual losses.