WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 15 counties in Nebraska as primary natural disaster areas due to flooding that began May 1, 2011, and continues.

“This action provides help to hundreds of producers who suffered significant losses to corn, soybeans, dry beans, sugar beets, wheat, and forage crops, as well as serious damage to farm structures,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The counties are:

Boyd Dixon Otoe

Burt Douglas Richardson

Cass Knox Sarpy

Cedar Lincoln Thurston

Dakota Nemaha Washington

Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Nebraska also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:

Antelope Hayes McPherson

Cuming Holt Pawnee

Custer Johnson Perkins

Dawson Keith Pierce

Dodge Keya Paha Rock

Frontier Lancaster Saunders

Gage Logan Wayne

Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and South Dakota also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous:

Iowa

Fremont Mills Pottawattamie

Harrison Monona Woodbury

Kansas

Brown Doniphan Nemaha

Missouri

Atchison Holt

South Dakota

Bon Homme Clay Union

Charles Mix Gregory Yankton

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas July 18, 2011, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided 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 EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.

USDA also has made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Emergency Conservation Program; Federal Crop Insurance; and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.