Four counties designated as primary natural disaster areas

This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans.

Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or the refinance of certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for 8 or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.

Primary Texas Counties eligible are Burleson, Fayette, Liberty and Washington. Contigous counties also eligible include: Grimes, Austin, Colorado, Jefferson, Polk, Bastrop, Gonzales, Lavaca, Robertson, Brazos, Lee, San Jacinto, Caldwell, Hardin, Milam, Waller, Chambers, Harris and Montgomery. Application deadline is March 27, 2023.

More Resources

On farmers.gov, the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster Assistanceat- a-Glance fact sheet, and Farm Loan Discovery Tool can help you determine program or loan options. To file a Notice of Loss or to ask questions about available programs, contact your local USDA Service Center.