Vilsack Updates Disaster Designation Process

By CnAgri2012-07-18 19:18:50 Print

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced changes earlier this week to the USDA disaster designation process that will reduce the time required for Secretarial disaster designations by 40 percent.

Under the new procedures, counties experiencing more than 8 consecutive weeks of drought during the growing season will almost automatically qualify for disaster county status.

The requirement for the state government or Indian tribal council to initiate the request for disaster designation will be removed, though the option to submit will still exist.

In addition, Vilsack designated 996 counties as primary disaster areas and 278 contiguous counties qualified for the program over a region of 24 states.

Also announced, the interest rate for emergency loans will be reduced from 3.75 percent to 2.25 percent and there will be a payment reduction from 25 to 10 percent on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands qualifying for emergency haying and grazing.