U.S. Department of Agriculture declared 8 counties as natural disaster areas.

updated by Saudi Ali, Thursday 5.11.2009Since the flooding that has occurred across the state in June, eight counties have been declared as primary natural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Those eight counties include Calhoun, Jefferson, Miller, Union, Desha, Lincoln, Pope and Yell.
Arkansas County farm operators will also qualify for natural disaster assistance due to it being contiguous, or sharing a border with one of the eight counties listed.
Contiguous counties, besides Arkansas County include Dallas, Little River, Perry, Ashley, Drew, Logan, Phillips, Bradley, Garland, Lonoke, Pulaski, Chicot, Grant, Montgomery, Scott, Cleveland, Hempstead, Newton, Searcy, Columbia, Johnson, Ouachita, Van Buren, Conway and Lafayette.
"President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to the area and serious harm to farms in Arkansas and we want to help," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release released Wednesday. "This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses to a wide variety of crops including corn, soybeans, cotton and vegetables."

All counties were designated on Nov. 3, 2009, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met.
Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.

USDA has also made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Emergency Conservation Program; Federal Crop Insurance; and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs.
Additional information is also available online at:  http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.