Emergency farm loans available locally

VW independent staff/submitted information

INDIANAPOLIS (IN) – The United States Department of Agriculture has designated 28 Indiana counties as natural disaster areas due to drought and as a result, five Ohio counties – Darke, Defiance, Mercer, Paulding and Van Wert counties – are eligible as contiguous counties.

The natural disaster designation allows the USDA Farm Service Agency to extend emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. Those 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 to refinance certain debts. The FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available, and repayment ability.

The loan application deadline is August 31.