USDA Designates 12 Counties in New Mexico as Primary Natural Disaster Areas with Assistance to Producers in Surrounding States

USDA Designates 12 Counties in New Mexico as Primary Natural Disaster Areas with Assistance to Producers in Surrounding States WASHINGTON, April 3, 2018 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 12 counties in New Mexico as primary natural disaster areas due to losses and damages caused by a recent drought. Those counties are: Catron Lea Rio Arriba San Miguel Guadalupe McKinley Sandoval Santa Fe Harding Mora San Juan Taos Farmers and ranchers in the following contiguous counties in New Mexico also qualify for natural disaster assistance. Those counties are: Bernalillo Eddy Roosevelt Chaves Grant Sierra Cibola Lincoln Socorro Colfax Los Alamos Torrance De Baca Quay Union Farmers and ranchers in the contiguous counties in Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Utah also qualify for natural disaster assistance. Those counties are: Arizona Apache and Greenlee Colorado Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, La Plata and Montezuma Texas Andrews, Cochran, Gaines, Loving, Winkler and Yoakum Utah San Juan Qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA’s) emergency (EM) loans, provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration of March 30, 2018, 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 the impacts of this disaster. Other FSA programs that can provide assistance, but do not require a disaster declaration, include: Operating and Farm Ownership Loans; the Emergency Conservation Program; Livestock Forage Disaster Program; Livestock Indemnity Program; Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program; and the Tree 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 at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov. FSA news releases are available on FSA’s website at www.fsa.usda.gov via the “Newsroom” link.