A U.S. Department of Agriculture “disaster designation” will let some Onondaga County farms receive aid following harsh weather.
Four counties in New York State, including Onondaga, Clinton, Franklin and Lewis counties, have been designated as a primary natural disaster area by the USDA following damages caused by a tornado and excessive rain in July. Seara Haines, the Onondaga County executive director for the USDA farm service agency in Lafayette, said crops took the biggest hit.
“Crop damage was the biggest part,” Haines said. “We had some hay producers in that area, that their fields were obviously severely saturated that they wouldn't be able to get on to harvest that hay for a long time.”
Haines says farms in the northern part of the county including Van Buren, Baldwinsville and Liverpool were impacted the most, with rains wiping out hay and vegetable crops. She said the emergency designation will help open up funding for the impacted farms.
“With this designation, it does open up, a major thing with our farm loans side, it does open up emergency loans for producers,” Haines said.
She said for those who meet the eligibility requirements, applying for this and other aid could help with everything from structural repairs to production costs.
Farmers have eight months to apply for emergency loans through their local FSA office.
