Applications for emergency farm loans for losses caused by severe drought are being accepted at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office located in Fort Stockton, Ryne McKinney said today.
Brewster, Crane, Culberson, Ector, El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Loving, Pecos, Presidio, Reeves, Terrell, Ward, and Winkler, are several counties in Texas recently named by Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack eligible for loans to cover part of actual production and/or physical losses resulting from the severe drought.
McKinney said farmers may be eligible for loans of up to 100% of their actual losses or the operating loan needed to continue the agricultural business, whichever is less. For farmers unable to obtain credit from private commercial lenders, the interest rate is 3.125 percent.
“As a general rule, a producer must have suffered at least a 30 percent loss of production to be eligible for an FSA emergency loan”, McKinney said. Producers participating in the Federal Crop Insurance program will have to consider proceeds from those programs in determining their loss.
“Applications for loans under this emergency designation will be accepted until December 23, 2014 but producers should apply as soon as possible. Delays in applying could create backlogs in processing, with possible delays into the new operating season”, McKinney said.
FSA is a credit agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is authorized to provide disaster emergency loans to recognized producers who work at and rely on production agriculture for a substantial part of their living. Eligibility is extended to individual producers who meet U.S. citizenship requirements and to partnerships, corporations, or cooperatives in which U.S. citizenship requirements are met by individuals holding a majority interest.
The FSA office in Fort Stockton is open from 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. Additional Information regarding Disaster Assistance Programs may be found online at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.
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