Disaster aid from March freeze available for farmers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a disaster designation for portions of Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey and state Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Rick Pate announced.

Last week, the governor sent the request to the secretary of USDA for a disaster designation due to a drop in temperatures during a period in March.

A disaster designation immediately triggers the availability of low-interest Farm Service Agency emergency loans to eligible producers in all primary and contiguous counties.

“Alabama’s farmers are vital to Alabamians and Americans alike,” Ivey said. “They put the food on our tables and are a center point of our economy. This much-needed disaster designation will help these hardworking men and women recover from lost crops resulting from an unpredictable change of temperature.

“I know this will help a good deal, and I am certainly proud to have the backs of our farmers during this recovery process and always.”

In her letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, Ivey said “from March 18, 2023 through March 20, 2023, the State of Alabama experienced extreme cold temperatures that resulted in a total loss of blueberries in southwest Alabama and a significant loss of peaches in central Alabama. There are also reports of stunted strawberry yields due to this cold weather event …”

The counties impacted by the designation are:

• Direct: Baldwin, Cullman, Henry, Morgan, Blount, Elmore, Houston, Russell, Chilton, Escambia, Mobile, Tallapoosa, Clarke, Etowah, Montgomery and Washington
• Contiguous: Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Choctaw, Clay, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, DeKalb, Geneva, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lee, Limestone, Lowndes, Macon, Madison, Marengo, Marshall, Monroe, Perry, Pike, Randolph, St. Clair, Shelby, Walker, Wilcox and Winston
• Adjacent state contiguous counties: Okaloosa (Fla.); Early, Clay, and Stewart (Ga.)

“Our department has worked closely with the Governor’s Office and USDA leadership over the past week,” Pate said. “We have learned of numerous impacts to the fruit and vegetable industry based on the late March freeze.

“We want to thank Governor Ivey and our federal partners for expediting the secretarial disaster designation.”

List updated 5/30.