ATLANTA, GA – Today, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the United States Department of Agriculture, announced that twenty additional Georgia counties have been designated as primary natural disaster areas due to ongoing drought conditions. With this expansion, a total of 146 Georgia counties have now been designated as primary natural disaster areas due to ongoing drought conditions. This Secretarial Disaster Declaration expands previous designations and makes farm operators in newly designated primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loan assistance, provided eligibility requirements are met.
“While Georgia farmers are no strangers to extreme conditions, the severe drought across our state continues to impact Georgia farm families, creating uncertainty and increasing costs at a critical time,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler J Harper. “This expanded disaster declaration ensures more Georgia producers can access federal resources to help weather these challenging conditions, and I’m grateful to Secretary Brooke Rollins and our federal partners for their continued support of Georgia agriculture.”
Primary Counties:
Georgia (20)
Butts, Chattooga, Clayton, Coweta, Dade, Dawson, DeKalb, Fayette, Fulton, Gordon, Habersham, Henry, Jasper, Newton, Pickens, Pike, Putnam, Rabun, Rockdale, Spalding
Contiguous Counties:
Georgia (31)
Baldwin, Banks, Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Greene, Gwinnett, Hall, Hancock, Heard, Jones, Lamar, Lumpkin, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Murray, Stephens, Towns, Troup, Upson, Walker, Walton, White, Whitfield
Contiguous Counties in Adjacent States:
Alabama (3)
Cherokee, DeKalb, Jackson
North Carolina (2)
Clay, Macon
South Carolina (1)
Oconee.
Tennessee (2)
Hamilton, Marion