AUBURN, Ala. (WTVM) – Farmers are facing what the United States Department of Agriculture is calling a natural disaster. The USDA labeled 25 counties in Alabama Natural Disaster Areas, two of those being Chambers and Russell Counties.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing declared a natural disaster for the flooding and the drought is certainly fitting for what we fight with,\u201d said Salem Farmer Garrett Dixon.<\/p>\n
A natural disaster is a declaration made by a government official that acknowledges a natural event has caused damage beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments to respond to effectively. According to Environmental Sciences Professor at Auburn University, Kent Stanford, the Spring, Summer and early Fall was detrimental to farmers in Alabama. The heavy rain and then drought right after caused many farmers to not have a crop this harvest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were guys dealing with 30 to 40 consecutive days of rainfall just when they needed to go to the fields and plant,\u201d said Kent Stanford. \u201cSo we had a lot of our producers that were not able to get a crop in the ground that got up against the planting deadlines and were not able to plant maybe the intended crop and had to go with an alternate crop or just not plant those fields at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salem Farmer, Garrett Dixon, says his yields this harvest are going to be affected. He says the potential for a good crop was limited through the entire season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did have places where some of the peanuts and cotton drowned it out from the excess rain. Back in the earlier part of the year,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cBut it was also too late at that point to replant those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dixon says Alabama relies on farming. It\u2019s a $77 Billion dollar industry and 10% of all Alabama jobs are directly related to agriculture. Luckily for farmers who will have a low yield or no crop at all, there is some financial relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first step is getting declared a natural disaster,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cI do know oftentimes the USDA and the Farm Service Agency will offer low interest loans if you have to restructure any kind of debt that could be incurred as a result of these natural disasters. So just to kind of help you weather that storm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanford says farmers are eternal optimists. Dixon says they\u2019ll get through this season and he\u2019s ready to start planting next season.<\/p>\n