LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Severe weather in the late winter and early spring led to damage in multiple counties in Arkansas, and now federal loans are being made available to help rebuild.
The United State Department of Agriculture is opening up low-interest loans for farmers who had property, equipment, crops or livestock lost to winter storms in February and a spate of tornadoes over March 6 and 7.
USDA physical loss loans can be used to pay for repairs or replacement of items including farm buildings, implements, harvested crops, stored hay, or even trees used to grow fruits or nuts.
For the winter storms, the primary counties eligible for the program include Cleburne, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Scott, Sebastian, Stone, Van Buren, and White Counties. Farmers in an additional 17 Arkansas and three Oklahoma counties that were labeled as “contiguous” are also eligible for the loans.
There are three primary counties eligible for the funding from the March tornado – Izard, Sharp, and Stone – plus another eight contiguous counties in Arkansas and one in Missouri.
Applications for loans tied to both storms are due January 13 of 2023. USDA officials said more resources are available at Farmers.gov, including a disaster assistance discovery tool, a disaster assistance-at-a-glance fact sheet and farm loan discovery tool.