(Washington, D.C.)– U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced this (Wed.) morning four more counties in Iowa have been designated as primary natural disaster areas due to the ongoing drought. They are Lyon, Plymouth, Sioux and Woodbury.
Counties that are contiguous to them are also included in the designation. Those counties are Cherokee, Crawford, Ida, Monona, O’Brien and Osceola, along with Nobles and Rock counties in southwest Minnesota.
The designation makes farm operators in primary counties and those that are contiguous eligible for assistance from the Farm Services Agency, including FSA emergency loans. Farmers in the eligible counties have 8 months from the date of a secretary disaster declaration to apply for emergency loan assistance. The FSA will consider each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses, security available and repayment ability.
