BATON ROUGE – Farmers and ranchers affected by last month's flooding could be eligible for assistance from several agencies.

The U.S. Small Business Administration offers low-interest loans to farmers and ranchers for rebuilding or repairing their primary homes and replacing lost or damaged personal property. Victims can call the SBA at 916-764-9918.
Victims can also begin the application process by calling FEMA at 800-621-3362 or online at at www.DisasterAssistance.gov.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency has programs that are tailored to help with recovery for farmers and ranchers and can be found at www.fsa.usda.gov. They are as follows:

The Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program provides financial assistance for non-insurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory or disrupted planting occur because of natural disasters.

The Livestock Indemnity Program provides payments for livestock death losses in excess of normal morality caused by the disaster.

The Tree Assistance Program helps nursery tree growers and orchardists.

The Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program provides relief for feed losses and/or water shortages because of disaster.

The Emergency Conservation Property provides funding to rehabilitate land severely damaged by a natural disaster.