FSA emergency loan designation in effect

Farm Service Agency State Executive Director Tim Kelley has announced that effective 29 counties in Missouri have FSA disaster loans available due to severe storms and flooding which occurred June 1, 2008, and continuing. Those counties are: Bates, Daviess, Gentry, Grundy, Harrison, Linn, Livingston, Mercer, Polk, Adair, Andrew, Caldwell, Carroll, Cass, Cedar, Chariton, Dade, Dallas, DeKaIb, Greene, Henry, Hickory, Macon, Nodaway, Putnam, St. Clair, Sullivan, Vernon and Worth.

Bates and Vernon County applications for assistance for physical and production losses caused by these disasters will be accepted at the FSA Office at 102 W. Allison, Nevada, MO 64772. Applications for this disaster will be accepted through March 11, 2009.

Loans for physical losses must be used to replace or repair damage to buildings, fences or to compensate the farmer for losses of basic livestock, stored crops, or supplies on hand, equipment, etc., that was lost due to the disaster. Loans for production losses may also be used to buy feed, seed, fertilizer, livestock or to make payments on real estate or chattel debts. Generally, loans for production losses cannot be approved until crops have completed their production cycle or have been harvested.

In order to qualify, a farmer must have suffered a 30-percent loss in production or an actual physical loss that was essential to the successful operation of the farm.

Loans for actual losses are made at an interest rate of 3.75 percent for emergency loans to those eligible applicants who are unable to obtain the actual credit needed from another source. All loan programs of the Farm Service Agency are conducted on a non-discriminatory basis.