USDA Designates 5 Counties in Tennessee as Primary Natural Disaster Areas

Reading - USDA Designates 5 Counties in Tennessee as Primary Natural Disaster Areas

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2010 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated five counties in Tennessee as primary natural disaster areas due to excessive rainfall that began September 1, 2009, and is continuing.

The five counties are: Claiborne, Cocke, Rutherford, Sevier, and Union.

"President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to the area and serious harm to farms in Tennessee and we want to help," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses to a wide variety of crops, including corn, cotton, forage, soybeans, tobacco, as well as specialty crops such as pumpkins."

Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Tennessee also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:

Anderson	Cannon	Davidson	Knox
Bedford	Coffee	Jefferson	Marshall
Blount	Grainger	Hamblen	Williamson
Campbell	Greene	Hancock	Wilson

Farm operators in the counties listed below in the adjacent states of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.

Kentucky: Bell, Whitley

North Carolina: Haywood, Madison, Swain

Virginia: Lee

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas Jan. 19, 2010, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.

USDA also has made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Emergency Conservation Program; Federal Crop Insurance; and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online athttp://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.