PENNSYLVANIA (WJAC) — Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Agriculture says the state is preparing to distribute funding to the state’s fruit farmers who were impacted by an early season freeze.
Just a few weeks ago, Russell Redding visited Centre County, lobbying for federal funding for fruit farmers and urging farmers to submit applications for the state funding assistance if they suffered crop losses.
The Department of Agriculture expects to begin distributing the funding grants very soon.
“This is a pretty easy process. You give us a map. If you’re self-certified and you have thirty percent loss of fruit and are eligible, you provide the map of fruit and orchards and tell us the number of acres. And we’ll do the math.”
Some fruit growers say they lost their entire crop this spring while other growers also report substantial losses.
Penn State experts estimate one to two hundred-million dollars in the state’s fruit crop was lost.