Mississippi Declared Ag Disaster Area

WASHINGTON - Sep 12/05 - SNS -- The USDA designated 31 counties in Mississippi as primary agricultural disaster areas, making certain farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers in the counties eligible for low-interest emergency loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA).

As a result of the major disaster declared a for the State of Mississippi on Aug. 29 by President George W. Bush due to Hurricane Katrina, 47 of 82 counties in Mississippi were already eligible for all available assistance for which a Presidential or Secretarial primary natural disaster designation would require.

USDA has reviewed documentation for the remaining 35 Mississippi counties and determined that 31 of them have sustained sufficient production losses to warrant a disaster designation. The remaining four counties are eligible as contiguous counties, resulting in eligibility across the entire State of Mississippi.

The following counties were today designated as primary agricultural disaster areas:

Benton

Bolivar

Calhoun

Carroll

Chickasaw

Clay

Coahoma

De Soto

Grenada

Holmes

Humphreys

Issaquena

Itawamba

Lafayette

Leflore

Marshall

Monroe

Montgomery

Panola

Pontotoc

Prentiss

Quitman

Sharkey

Sunflower

Tallahatchie

Tate

Tunica

Union

Washington

Webster

Yalobusha

Counties eligible because they are contiguous to those listed above are Alcorn, Lee, Tippah and Tishomingo.