Hurricane Loan Help for Florida Farmers

If you are a Florida farmer there may be assistance available to you in the form of a loan from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) which offers the Agriculture and Aquaculture Producers Natural Disaster Recovery Loan Program to support farmers and aquaculture producers affected by natural disasters. This program provides low-interest or interest-free loans to help restore, repair, or replace essential physical property, such as fences, equipment, and buildings, or to remove vegetative debris from the property.

Eligible applicants must own a bona fide farm operation on land classified as agricultural or lease sovereign submerged land. The farm or aquaculture facility must be located in a qualifying county affected by a declared disaster, such as Hurricane Helene. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and cannot have accepted financial assistance from other state or federal disaster relief programs. 

The maximum loan amount is $500,000, with a term of up to 10 years. Applicants can receive no more than one loan per application period and a maximum of five loans within any three-year period. Structures built with loan funds must comply with storm-hardening standards.

Here is a link to the FDACS site to see if you qualify and/or need more information. Agriculture and Aquaculture Producers Natural Disaster Recovery Loan Program / Agriculture Industry / Home - Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (fdacs.gov)

Polk and Hillsborough County Drought Natural Disaster Assistance

Your nursery production might not be affected by the drought but this information might be useful.

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2017 — In response to a request from Debbie Folsom, Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) acting State Executive Director in Florida, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 8 counties in Florida as primary natural disaster areas due to losses and damages caused by a recent drought. Those counties are:

Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Highlands, Okeechobee, Osceola and Polk

Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Florida also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous. Those counties are:

Brevard, Hendry, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Martin, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Sarasota, St. Lucie, and Sumter
                                             
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on May 10, 2017, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for FSA’s emergency (EM) loans, provided eligibility requirements are met.

Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration 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 adversity.

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.

To find your local FSA office, go to https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=fl&agency=fsa    

Additional information is also available online at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov