The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making it easier for producers hard-hit by July’s flooding to access disaster assistance by waiving some rules for certain relief programs.
Many New Hampshire farmers, particularly in the Monadnock Region, experienced crop loss and soil damage following the extreme weather, hurting their operation’s bottom line. The USDA is granting producers in flood-impacted counties across the Northeast more flexibility with their applications for aid.
With the policy changes, impacted producers can apply for programs that help with issues like repair, crop insurance and long-term sustainability. The department has also extended the application deadline for numerous aid programs to January 30, 2024.
Jeffrey Holmes, the state executive director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency in New Hampshire, said he hopes granting producers more time to report damage and having some leeway on loan repayment will relieve farmers of some stress.
“There are lots of issues on the farm right now, and flooding is just one of them,” he said.
So far, Holmes said, Belknap, Merrimack, Hillsborough and Sullivan counties have requested a USDA secretarial disaster designation for the flooding and heavy rain. He added he expects Cheshire county will soon also submit a formal request, once it completes the documentation necessary to meet the designation’s standards.
Counties contiguous with primary designated counties receive a secondary designation. Impacted producers in both primary and secondary designated counties are eligible for low-interest emergency loans. Earlier this month, Cheshire and Hillsborough received secondary designations because they border Massachusetts counties designated as primary disaster zones.
Holmes said it is advantageous for impacted counties to receive a primary disaster designation in case there is future supplemental congressional relief allocated only for areas with a primary designation.
Earlier this summer, 8 out 10 of New Hampshire’s counties received a primary disaster designation following a deep freeze event in May.
Holmes anticipates the wet weather will continue to hurt New Hampshire growers, both this summer and in years to come, as climate change makes New England wetter.
“All this moisture is not over yet by any means,” he said.
“They used to call them 100 year floods. Now they're happening several times a decade,” he added. “When it rains, it really pours.”
