***NEW*** USDA Drought Disaster Designation
On March 5th United States Department of Agriculture’s Secretary Thomas Vilsack designated counties within California as primary or contiguous natural disaster areas due to the recent drought. San Diego County was declared a contiguous county eligible to be considered for assistance from Farm Service Agency. The local Farm Service Agency office is located at 900 Canterbury Place, Escondido, CA 92025 and is open the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month from 10 AM to 3PM, they can be reached at 760-347-3675. Please read the Secretary’s letter below (it can be translated using the google translate feature, the linked document is official copy):
March 5th
Dear Governor Newsom:
In accordance with 7 CFR 759.5(a), I am designating 50 California counties as primary natural disaster areas due to a recent drought.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor (see http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/), 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.
In accordance with section 321(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, additional areas of your state and adjacent states are named as contiguous disaster counties. Enclosed you will find documentation that provides a detailed list of all primary and contiguous counties impacted by this disaster.
A Secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for certain assistance from the Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. This assistance includes FSA emergency loans. Farmers in eligible counties have 8 months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans. FSA considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator.
Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers with further
information.
Sincerely,
Thomas J. Vilsack
Secretary
NEW! Drought Assistance
CDFA and USDA are providing resources to drought impacted farmers and ranchers. Please visit California Drought Assistance for more information
USDA Farm Service Agency Emergency Loans
Due to the wildfires on September 4, 2020, a Presidential Disaster Declaration was made on October 16, 2020. As a result the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency Emergency Loan Program has been made available to San Diego County. Please see the Farm Service Emergency Loan Fact Sheet which has important information pertaining to applying for this assistance. More information can be found on the Farm Service Agency Emergency Web page:
https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-loan-programs/emergency-farm-loans/index
The deadline for applications to the assistance programs is June 16, 2021. If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to the Farm Service Agency local County Executive Office at (760)-347-3675.
USDA California Farm Service Agency Opens Office Space in San Diego County to Assists Farmers and Ranchers Needs. FSA office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. FSA office located at 900 Canterbury Place, Escondido, CA 92025. Please see this press release for more information.
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