JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – All of Mississippi’s counties have been designated as USDA disaster areas due to the drought in 2023.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack made the designation to help the counties. The designation makes Mississippi farmers eligible for consideration for Farm Service Agency Loan Assistance.


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“This emergency loan would be something that a rock producer could take advantage of to offset for any losses they incurred due to last year’s drought or for a livestock farmer to go back pick up extra hay. Right now, we’ve had a really good growing season this spring for ryegrass, so you’ve seen good grazing conditions through the spring, even though a lot of areas were still considered a drought area through the spring. We’ve got good ryegrass right now, as you can see behind me. But a lot of people ran through their hay reserves. So, this money would be something they could access to pick up more hay or to pick up equipment needed to get more hay stored for next year,” said Kevin Brown, Region 5 regional manager/public policy coordinator for the Farm Bureau Federation.

Farmers have an eight-month window to apply for the loan.