AUBURN UNIVERSITY, Ala.—Natural disasters can devastate farm families’ livelihood, wreaking havoc on farm infrastructure, destroying crops and killing livestock. An economist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System said the most significant threats come from hurricanes and their aftereffects.
“The nature of their job means that farmers face inherent risks,” said Adam Rabinowitz, who is also an Auburn University assistant professor of agricultural economics. “There are ways to prepare and a number of government programs to aid recovery.”
Many of these programs are administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency.
Shnequie Bowman-Greene, Alabama FSA chief agricultural program specialist, was recently a guest on Episode 25 of the Alabama Crops Report Podcast. She said when disaster affects agriculture, FSA’s role is to assess damage.
“After the disaster, we do loss assessments and then track those losses at a county level,” she said. “The major role of tracking is to guide disaster designation. If we have one or more crops with a 30 percent or greater loss, FSA forwards that information to the Secretary of Agriculture and requests a disaster designation.”
Rabinowitz offered these suggestions for farmers confronting the aftermath of a disaster.
“The USDA recovery website contains valuable resources and farmers should review it in case of a natural disaster,” he said. Find the site by visiting www.farmers.gov/protection-recovery.
Sydney Griffin, an FSA agricultural program specialist who was also a guest on the crops podcast, said farmers should find a disaster assistance recovery tool on the site useful.
“The tool will help farmers choose which type of programs that FSA has that might offer benefits after they have suffered these weather events,” Griffin said.
Rabinowitz has published a factsheet listing a number of disaster assistance programs that may aid those applying for assistance due to agricultural losses.
Bowman-Greene added that additional programs often become available, particularly in natural disasters with widespread damage.
Rabinowitz and Bowman-Greene agree that gathering documentation and following FSA guidance are crucial to navigating the disaster assistance process successfully.
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