Monmouth farmers can get fed. aid
Monmouth County farmers and ranchers qualify for natural disaster benefits this year.

Paul Hlubik, executive director for the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) in New Jersey, announced earlier this week that the USDA has designated eight New Jersey counties as primary natural disaster areas because of losses caused by drought and high temperatures occurring after June 1, according to a press release from the FSA.

The USDA has designated Atlantic, Camden, Cumberland, Ocean, Burlington, Cape May, Gloucester and Salem counties as primary natural disaster areas, but farm operators in Mercer and Monmouth counties also qualify for natural disaster benefits because their counties are contiguous.

The counties were designated natural disaster areas on Oct. 30, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low-interest emergency loans from USDA's FSA, provided that 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 loan program to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.

USDA has also made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including federal crop insurance and the Emergency Conservation and Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance programs.

Interested farmers may also contact their local USDA service centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs.

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