They have eight months to apply.
Annapolis, Md (KM) Some low interest loans are available for farmers who suffered losses due to the spring floods. At the request of Governor Larry Hogan, US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue declared 11 counties in Maryland disaster areas, including Frederick.
“The county office at FSA did the assessment and it came back that there was enough loss to actually declare the disaster, along with three other Maryland counties as primary disaster counties,” says Steve Connelly, the Assistant Secretary for Marketing, Animal Industries and Consumer Services with the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
FSA is the US Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. It has an office in Frederick at 92 Thomas Johnson Drive for farmers who want more information or want to make application. The phone number is 301-695-2803.
Connelly says farmers from jurisdictions in surrounding counties can apply for low interest loans. They include Montgomery, Carroll, Howard and Washington Counties. Farmers in Adams and Franklin Counties in Pennsylvania, and Loudon County, Virginia, can also apply for low interest loans to pay for damages due to the high waters in May.
They need to apply within eight months after the Secretary of Agriculture issues a disaster declaration.
Connelly says the loans have an interest rate of 3.75%,
Other counties in Maryland which were declared primary disaster areas are Dorchetesr, Somerset and Wicomico. The surrounding counties where farmers can also apply for low interest loans are Caroline, Talbot and Worcester in Maryland, and Sussex County in Delaware.
By Kevin McManus