Procedures for Emergency Federal Assistance
How an Agricultural Disaster is Declared
When a natural disaster affects agricultural crops or farms in an area, the USDA county emergency board alerts the state emergency board by issuing a flash report. Emergency board members are from the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resource Conservation Service and KSU Extension. All disaster assistance begins at this local level.
The state committee, which includes representatives from the state FSA office, KSU Extension, Kansas Agricultural Statistics, the Kansas Department of Agriculture, and other state and federal agencies, meets regularly to review flash reports from affected counties to decide which justify a request for a disaster declaration.
When a flash report shows significant damage -- at least a 30 percent production loss -- the governor may ask that a damage assessment report be prepared to send to the U.S. secretary of agriculture. If the state emergency board accepts a damage report from the counties, the governor will, within 90 days of the disaster, send a letter to the U.S. secretary of agriculture to request a secretarial determination. In a major disaster, the governor may make a direct written request to the president for a disaster declaration.
After a county is designated a disaster area, emergency loans are made available to qualifying farmers through the Emergency Loan Assistance.
Types of Declarations
Presidential Declaration: At the request of the governor, the president can declare a county a major disaster area under the terms of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. Under a presidential declaration, emergency loans can be made available to eligible farmers and ranchers.
Secretarial Declaration: At the request of the governor or Indian tribal council, the U.S. secretary of agriculture can designate counties as disaster areas and provide emergency loans.
FSA Administrator Physical Loss Designations: The FSA state director can ask the national FSA administrator to designate counties as disaster areas, which allows loan assistance only for physical losses (buildings, machinery, fences, etc.).
Types of Federal Disaster Relief Programs
Emergency Loan Assistance: USDA’s Farm Service Agency provides emergency loans to help producers recover from production and physical losses due to drought, flooding, other natural disasters, or quarantine. Loan funds may be used to pay all or part of production costs associated, to refinance certain debts, to pay essential family living expenses, or to reorganize the farming operation. Producers can borrow up to 100 percent of actual production or physical losses, to a maximum of $500,000. Emergency loans are a temporary source of credit and borrowers are assessed interest on the amount they borrow.
Emergency Haying and/or Grazing: To get approval for emergency haying and/or grazing, Farm Service Agency county committees must submit evidence that the county is suffering from a 40 percent or greater loss of normal hay and pasture production, and that precipitation levels during the days immediately preceding the request, as well as the precipitation levels for the preceding four months, indicate an average loss of 40 percent or more. This type of authorization is limited in its duration.
Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program: Producers growing a crop currently not eligible for crop insurance may be eligible for a direct payment from FSA under this program.
Emergency Conservation Program: Under this program, FSA shares the cost of rehabilitating farmland damaged in a disaster.
Other Federal Assistance
USDA's Farm Service Agency HayNet: This website serves as an electronic bulletin board where ranchers in need of hay can find critical information about the nearest supply.
For more information about USDA disaster programs, visit their Disaster Assistance website.