WASHINGTON – Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman has named 38 counties in New York as eligible for USDA emergency farm loans due to losses caused by drought that occurred last year.
“This assistance will help New York farmers recover from reduced pasture grazing and crop production caused by severe drought conditions,” said Veneman.
Counties eligible. Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Clinton, Dutchess, Erie, Essex, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, Putnam, Schuyler, Seneca, Ulster, Wayne and Westchester counties were named as primary disaster areas on Jan. 22.
Also eligible, because they are contiguous, are Bronx, Cayuga, Chemung, Columbia, Delaware, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Livingston, Monroe, Nassau, Ontario, Orange, Rockland, Steuben, Suffolk, Sullivan, Tompkins, Warren, Washington, Wyoming and Yates counties.
Some of these counties may have been declared under a previous designation.
Emergency loans. This designation makes all qualified farm operators in primary and contiguous disaster counties eligible for low-interest emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met.
Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of this declaration to apply for the loans to help cover part of their actual losses.
