Farm Service Agency (FSA) O’Neill Service Center announced that family farmers in eight Nebraska counties are eligible to apply for low interest Farm Service Agency (FSA) Emergency (EM) loans due to physical and production losses caused by drought that occurred on July 17, 2012 and continuting. Those counties are: Boone, Custer, Greeley, Howard, Merrick, Nance, Sherman and Valley.
In addition, the following 14 Nebraska counties became eligible for this assistance because they are contiguous to one or more of the primary Nebraska counties that were designated on July 25, 2012 by the Secretary of Agriculture.
Those Nebraska counties are: Antelope, Buffalo, Garfield, Hamilton, Logan, Madison, Polk, Blaine, Dawson, Hall, Lincoln, Loup, Platte and Wheeler.
Family farmers interested in finding out if they are eligible should contact either Mote Fletcher or Doug Steffen for information. They can be reached Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Holt-Boyd County FSA Office.
Emergency loan applications are available and must be submitted through the local FSA county office from any applicant who qualifies for a physical or production loss (at least a 30 percent reduction from normal) in a single enterprise from this disaster in the counties.
To qualify for an EM loan, an applicant must be an established family farm operator; provide evidence of having suffered a qualifying physical or production loss; be unable to obtain suitable credit from a source other than FSA. The low interest loans may cover up to 100 percent of their actual production losses, up to a maximum amount of $500,000. The applicants must show ability to repay the loan and the loan must be adequately secured. FSA loans for production losses may be used to buy feed, seed, fertilizer, livestock, or to refinance certain debts. FSA loans for physical losses may be used to repair or replace the property that was damaged or lost. The July 2012 interest rate for EM loans is 2.25%. The deadline for submitting application is March 25, 2013.
In addition to the emergency (EM) Loan Program, FSA has other loan programs and disaster assistance programs which can be considered in assisting farmers to recover from their losses. Please contact your local FSA Service Center or access additional information about FSA Disaster Assistance and Farm Loan programs at www.fsa.usda.gov/dafl.
