USDA Designates 24 Georgia Counties as Primary Natural Disaster Areas — Georgia State FSA November 2019 Newsletter Update

Secretary Sonny Perdue designated 24 Georgia counties as primary natural disaster areas. Producers who suffered losses due to recent drought may be eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loans.

The Georgia counties with the primary natural disaster designation include Banks, Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gilmer, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Henry, Lumpkin, Paulding, Pickens, Twiggs, White, and Wilkinson.

This natural disaster designation allows FSA to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or the refinance of certain debts.

Producers in the contiguous Georgia counties of Baldwin, Barrow, Bibb, Bleckley, Butts, Fannin, Floyd, Franklin, Gordon, Haralson, Heard, Houston, Jackson, Johnson, Jones, Laurens, Madison, Meriwether, Murray, Newton, Polk, Rabun, Rockdale, Spalding, Stephens, Towns, Troup, Union, Walton, and Washington, along with Cleburne and Randolph counties in Alabama, and Oconee County, South Carolina, are also eligible to apply for emergency loans.

The deadline to apply for these emergency loans is June 24, 2020.

Farmers may contact their local USDA Service Center for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at farmers.gov/recover.