U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has notified Gov. Steve Sisolak that Nye County has been designated as a primary natural disaster area due to a recent drought.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Nye County suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more consecutive weeks or D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.
In accordance with the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, Churchill, Clark, Esmeralda, Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Mineral and White Pine counties were named as contiguous disaster counties, as has Inyo County in California.
Other counties in Nevada might have been designated as natural disaster counties if they had previously met the requirements for the current crop year.
A disaster designation makes farm operators in primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for certain assistance from the Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met. This assistance includes FSA emergency loans.
Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of a disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans. FSA considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator.
Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers with further information.