U.S. Department of Agriculture Grants Governor Hassan's Request for Natural Disaster Designation for Farmers in 10 New Hampshire Counties

Governor Maggie Hassan today announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted her request for a Secretarial natural disaster designation for farmers of perennial fruit crops in Rockingham, Strafford, Hillsborough, Cheshire, Sullivan, Merrimack, Grafton, Coos, Carroll and Belknap counties.

"At the start of the 2016 growing season, farmers of perennial fruit crops in our state suffered widespread crop losses due to extreme cold in February and again in early April, following warming temperatures," Governor Hassan said. "It appears that nearly 100 percent of our state's peach crop was lost, and apples suffered significant losses as well due to this particular weather pattern. With this designation, the state and these communities will now be able to access critical federal dollars to aid in response efforts to the significant loss of crops. I thank Secretary Vilsack for heeding my request and for supporting New Hampshire's agriculture industry, which is critical to our economy and our way of life."

Belknap, Cheshire, Grafton, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham, Strafford and Sullivan Counties have been named as primary natural disaster areas, and Carroll and Coos Counties have been named as contiguous disaster counties. With the Secretarial disaster designation, farm operators in primary and contiguous counties are now eligible to be considered for assistance from the New Hampshire Farm Service Agency (FSA), including emergency loans.

The full letter of Governor's request is below. To view Secretary Vilsack's letter granting the Governor's request, visit https://filemanager.capwiz.com/filemanager/file-mgr/agdepartment/SignedCopy_10000045_NewHampshire.pdf and for more information on the latest list of counties on USDA's disaster assistance program, visit http://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/disaster-assistance-program/index.

In addition, Governor Hassan also requested a drought declaration for three counties in New Hampshire, and this week the Merrimack, Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties reached the D3, Extreme Drought designation, fast-tracking Governor Hassan's request and automatically granting the request for the D3 designated counties.

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