All Texas Counties Receive USDA Disaster Declaration

The USDA has issued a disaster declaration for all 254 Texas counties due to this year's drought.

213 counties will qualify as primary natural disaster areas due to losses caused by drought, excessive heat, high winds, and wildfires that occurred during the period starting on January 1, 2011.  The rest of Texas' counties will be placed under the contiguous natural disaster county category.

Farmers in both primary and contiguous counties will be eligible to be considered for assistance from the FSA, provided eligibility requirements are met. This assistance includes FSA emergency loans and the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) Program. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loan assistance. FSA will consider each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses, security available, and repayment ability.

Here is the list of Texas counties listed as contiguous natural disaster counties:

Bexar, Ector, Hunt, Runnels, Williamson, Borden, Falls, Kaufman, Montague, Tarrant, Wilson, Carson, Fannin, Kinney, Navarro, Terry, Winkler, Crane, Gaines, Llano, Nueces, Uvalde, Wise, Dallas, Grayson, Mason, Real, Van Zandt, Yoakum, Dawson, Henderson, Matagorda, Red River, Ward, Zavala, Dimmit Hill, Maverick, Rockwall and Wharton.

The rest of the state's counties are primary natural disaster areas.

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For more information about the USDA go to USDA.gov