Area farmers eligible for loans to cover Hurricane Michael losses

Dec. 19--Farmers in several area counties are eligible for low-interest loans to cover losses they sustained due to Hurricane Michael.

The eligible counties, designated primary natural disaster areas by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue include Burke, Glascock, Emanuel, Hancock, Jefferson, Jenkins, Screven and Washington.

Also eligible are farmers in the contiguous counties of Richmond, Taliaferro and Warren as well as Aiken and Barnwell counties in South Carolina, according to a news release.

The state's pecan producers lost an estimated $100 million on the year's crop and $260 million in lost trees, according to previous Chronicle reports. Michael's winds destroyed up to $800 million of the state's cotton crop, $1 billion in timber land and an estimated $480 million in vegetables, the reports said.

In an emergency session called by Gov. Nathan Deal after the hurricane, the Georgia General Assembly last month approved $200 million in income tax credits for timber and pecan farmers, $55 million to assist farmers with crop losses and $20 million to assist with cleanup and recovery by timber farmers.

The federal designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency to extend emergency credit to farm producers to recover, including replacing essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganizing a farming operation or refinancing certain debts, according to a USDA news release.

Eligible farmers must have suffered at least a 30 percent loss in production or a physical loss to livestock or products.

The deadline to apply for the loans is Aug. 12. The current interest rate is 4 percent.

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