USDA Designates These Colorado Counties as Primary Natural Disaster Areas

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue designated 21 Colorado counties as primary natural disaster areas. Producers who suffered losses due to recent drought may be eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency emergency loans. 

The Colorado counties with the primary natural disaster designation include Alamosa, Archuleta, Baca, Conejos, Costilla, Delta, Dolores, Garfield, Gunnison, Huerfano, La Plata, Las Animas, Mesa, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, Pitkin, Rio Blanco, Rio Grande, Saguache, and San Miguel. 

Producers in the contiguous Colorado counties of Bent, Chaffee, Custer, Eagle, Fremont, Hinsdale, Lake, Mineral, Moffat, Otero, Prowers, Pueblo, Routt, and San Juan, along with Apache County, Arizona; Morton and Stanton counties in Kansas; Colfax, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Taos, and Union counties in New Mexico; Cimarron County, Oklahoma; and Grand, San Juan, and Uintah counties in Utah, are also eligible to apply for emergency loans. 

Ten Kansas counties were declared as primary natural disaster areas. Producers in Finney, Grant, Gray, Hamilton, Kearny, Morton, Scott, Stanton, Stevens, and Wichita counties who suffered losses due to recent drought may be eligible for USDA FSA emergency loans. 

Producers in the contiguous Kansas counties of Ford, Gove, Greeley, Haskell, Hodgeman, Lane, Logan, Meade, Ness, Seward, and Wallace, along with Baca and Prowers counties in Colorado, and Cimarron and Texas counties in Oklahoma, are also eligible to apply for emergency loans. 

Two Utah counties were declared as primary natural disaster areas. Producers in Kane and San Juan counties who suffered losses due to recent drought may be eligible for USDA FSA emergency loans. 

Producers in the contiguous Utah counties of Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Washington, and Wayne, along with Apache, Coconino, Mohave, and Navajo counties in Arizona; Dolores, Mesa, Montezuma, Montrose, and San Miguel counties in Colorado; and San Juan County, New Mexico, are also eligible to apply for emergency loans. 

Perdue designated three Arizona counties as primary natural disaster areas. Producers in Apache, Coconino, and Navajo counties who suffered losses due to recent drought may be eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loans. 

Producers in the contiguous Arizona counties of Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Mohave, and Yavapai, along with Montezuma County, Colorado; Catron, Cibola, McKinley, and San Juan counties in New Mexico; and Kane and San Juan counties in Utah, are also eligible to apply for emergency loans. 

This natural disaster designation allows FSA to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or the refinance of certain debts. 

The deadline to apply for these emergency loans is Nov. 7, 2020.

FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. 

FSA has a variety of additional programs to help farmers recover from the impacts of this disaster. FSA programs that do not require a disaster declaration include: Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program; Emergency Conservation Program; Livestock Forage Disaster Program; Livestock Indemnity Program; Operating and Farm Ownership Loans; and the Tree Assistance Program. 

Farmers may contact their local USDA service center for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at farmers.gov/recover.