Six Washington counties get disaster area declaration
Washington Ag Today December 1, 2009 The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated six counties in Washington as primary natural disaster areas due to losses caused by drought that occurred from Jan. 1, 2009, and continuing. The counties are: Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, Lincoln, and Okanogan. Farm operators in the 12 counties contiguous to the six designated counties can also qualify for natural disaster assistance. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says this action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses to wheat, rangeland and pasture. Qualified farm operators in designated and adjacent counties are eligible for low interest emergency loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency provided certain requirements are met. The 2008 Farm Bill included a new permanent disaster assistance program, the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program, or SURE but USDA has yet to get that up and running. When he spoke recently at the Washington Association of Wheat Growers convention USDA Undersecretary Jim Miller said the department should soon have SURE implemented. Miller: “The SURE program. We are working with OMB to finalize the rules on that. We expect those program regulations to be published in the next few weeks and we are expecting to begin making payments yet in December. It is going to be a real challenge for FSA.” Congress created the SURE program to replace the ad hoc disaster programs of past years. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
