USDA Texas Farm Service Agency (FSA) Acting Executive Director James B. Douglass announced that 207 counties in Texas, including Denton County, were declared a disaster on Jan. 9, 2013, due to drought and heat.
Under the designation, producers are eligible to apply for low interest emergency loans.
The streamlined disaster designation process issues a drought disaster declaration when a county has experienced a drought intensity value of at least a D2 (severe drought) level for eight consecutive weeks based on the U.S. Drought Monitor during the crop year.
“The disaster designation is welcome relief to producers because it allows all qualified operators in primary and contiguous counties to apply for a low interest emergency (EM) loan,” said Douglass.
Emergency loans help producers recover from production and physical losses due to drought, flooding and other natural disasters or quarantine.
Producers have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for emergency loan assistance. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. Producers can borrow up to 100 percent of actual production or physical losses, to a maximum amount of $500,000. The current emergency loan interest rate is 2.15 percent.
For more information about emergency loans, please contact your local FSA office or visit www.fsa.usda.gov.
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