Farmers and ranchers who were impacted by last year’s floods could be eligible for recovery grants.

Ag Commissioner Mike Strain says the state has $10 million to help affected farmers. He says it is part of the $1.6 billion Congress appropriated for flood recovery.
“In order to qualify you have to be in one of the 51 parishes that was declared a disaster as a result of the flooding,” Strain said.
Strain says to qualify, you must have had at least $10,000 in uninsured losses. He says they’re also doing what they can to make sure all farmers and ranchers are aware of this opportunity.

“We’re going to have some outreach meetings, and we’re going to make sure that everyone knows that this is going on,” Strain said, “and then probably towards the middle to end of July, we’ll start the process of accepting applications.”

Strain says the floods caused more than $100 million in agriculture losses, and this is something his office has worked for since the floods. He says there needs to be a better system in place to help farmers after disasters.

“We need to have a specific disaster program in the farm bill that is that is properly funded or have agriculture included with everything else in the Stafford Act,” Strain said.

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