Overview

Agriculture-related disasters and disaster designations are quite

common. Many counties in the United States have been designated

as disaster areas in the past several years, even in years of record

crop production.

The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to designate counties

as disaster areas to make emergency (EM) loans available to

producers suering losses in those counties and in counties that are

contiguous to a designated county. In addition to EM loan eligibility,

nation;

• Presidential major disaster and Presidential emergency declara-

tion;

• FSA Administrator’s Physical Loss Notication (APLN); and

• Quarantine designation by the Secretary under the Plant Protec-

tion Act or animal quarantine laws.

USDA Secretarial disaster designations must be requested of the

Secretary of Agriculture by a governor or the governor’s authorized

representative, by an Indian Tribal Council leader or by an FSA State

Executive Director (SED). The Secretarial disaster designation is the

disaster declaration can be made within days or

hours of the initial request. FEMA immediately

noties FSA of the primary counties named in a Presidential

declaration.

An FSA APLN is for physical losses only, such as a building destroyed

by a tornado. Livestock-related losses are considered physical losses.

An APLN is requested of FSA’s Administrator by an FSA SED.

A quarantine designation is requested of the Secretary of Agriculture

by an FSA SED. A quarantine designation authorizes EM loans for

production and physical losses resulting from quarantine.

ter; and

• The specic counties included in the

designation.

Secretarial Disaster Designation

Process

USDA’s Secretarial disaster declaration

process is streamlined to reduce paperwork

and documentation requirements at

the local FSA level, making the process

more ecient and timely for agricultural

intensity value for eight consecutive weeks

or a higher drought intensity value for

any length of time as reported in the U.S.

Drought Monitor (http://droughtmonitor.

unl.edu.)

United States

Emergency Disaster Designation and Declaration Process

designation, the county must have a 30 percent

production loss of at least one crop or a determination

must be made by surveying producers that other

lending institutions will not be able to provide

emergency nancing. The process for those Secretarial

disaster designations is described below.

Process

STEP 1

The governor, Indian Tribal Council leader or FSA

SED makes a request in writing to the Secretary of

The County Emergency Board reviews the Loss

Assessment Report to determine if a 30 percent

production loss of at least one crop occurred, and

makes a recommendation to approve, defer or reject

the request.

STEP 4

The State Emergency Board reviews the request and

the County Emergency Board’s recommendation. The

State Emergency Board’s recommendation is submitted

to FSA’s national headquarters.

Eligible natural disasters are disasters in which

damaging weather conditions or other adverse natural

occurrence phenomena have substantially aected

farmers causing severe production losses. Eligible

natural disaster conditions include, but are not limited

to, drought, ooding, excessive rain and humidity,

severe storms, lightning, hail, mudslides and landslides,

snow, ice, blizzards, frost, freeze, below-normal

temperatures, wind, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons,

tropical storms, re, excessive heat, volcanoes, pests

trigger the availability of low-interest FSA EM loans

to eligible producers in all primary and contiguous

counties. More information about EM loans is available

at www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-

loan-programs/emergency-farm-loans/index.

FSA borrowers located in designated disaster areas

or contiguous counties, who are unable to make their

scheduled payments on any debt, may be authorized

to have certain set asides. Under Section 331A of the

Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, FSA is

Regulation Governing Disaster Designation

Process

The regulation governing disaster designations is at

7 CFR Part 759.

For More Information

This fact sheet is for informational purposes only; other

restrictions may apply. For more information about FSA

disaster programs, visit http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov

or contact your local FSA oce. To nd your local FSA

oce, visit http://oces.usda.gov.