WINONA - The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted to join several other counties like Calhoun, Pontotoc and Leflore to urge Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to declare those areas agricultural disasters due to heavy rains that saturated the area in September.
Supervisor Ron Wood, who is also the owner of Hi-Grade Farm Supply, said in Montgomery County some cotton acres that normally yield 900 pounds of cotton are producing 300 pounds this year. He also said the areas soybean crops are yielding 75 to 90 percent damaged beans.
"Some of the beans weren't even worth cutting," Wood said.
Wood was optimistic about cotton planted later in the season.
"It looks like later-planted cotton might be satisfactory, but I'm not sure that is going to be a fair assumption," Wood said. "Overall, it is not going to be good."
According to a release from the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, current crop conditions show very poor quality and yield for farms have left farmers with low discounted prices as well as total crop loss.
Dr. Lester Spell, Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce said, "I have requested members of Mississippi's Congressional Delegation and the United States Department of Agriculture's Secretary of Agriculture to sport legislative measure beyond normal USDA disaster programs to assist Mississippi farmers who have lost all or have lost large portions of their crops severely damaged due to devastating weather conditions this year."
Mississippi State University Agricultural Economists, Dr. John Anderson and Dr. John Michael Riley, have studied recent crop reports and have estimated current crop losses in Mississippi reaching approximately $485 million.
Soybean producers are expected to lose $307 million, a 44 percent loss, and nearly half the state's cotton crop is expected to be lost.
Normally, 90 percent of the state's cotton crop has been harvested by November 1, based on a five year average, but this year, as of November 1, only 14 percent of the crop had been harvested.
"Existing USDA assistance for many of these crops will not be available for up to a year or more," Spell said. "By that time, I fear many of our hardworking Mississippi farmers will no longer be able to operate due to the excessive losses faced this year which will, in turn, affect their access to financing in the future."
U.S. Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) urged USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to declare all 23 counties of Mississippi's Second Congressional District an agricultural disaster.
According to Thompson's office, "once a county has been declared a disaster area by either the President of the Secretary of Agriculture, agricultural producers in that county may become eligible for low-interest emergency disaster (EM) loans available through USDA's Farm Service Agency. Producers in counties that are contiguous to a county with a disaster designation also become eligible for an EM loan. EM loan funds may be used to help eligible farmers, ranchers, and aquaculture producers recover from production and physical losses."
Post a Comment