Supervisors Declare a Disaster for Growers : Freeze: The board opens the way for farmers to seek low-interest loans. But for many, the U.S. program offers little help.

Ventura County supervisors asked Gov. George Deukmejian on Thursday to help obtain federal disaster assistance loans for local growers, some of whom lost most of their crops during the December freeze.

The board, meeting in an emergency session, declared Ventura County a disaster area, setting up the process for county growers to seek low-interest loans to help them recover from an estimated $100 million in crop losses countywide.

Boards of supervisors in 14 other counties around the state are expected to make similar declarations in the weeks ahead, state officials said. Gov.-elect Pete Wilson is expected to make his own declaration, and President Bush may also issue a federal disaster proclamation, officials said Thursday.

But for many Ventura County growers, some of whom suffered 95% crop losses and yet unestimated damage to citrus and avocado trees, federal assistance will offer little help.

Farmers Home Administration loans are available only to certain growers who have been turned down three times by conventional lenders. And the first cent of recovery loan money won’t reach the area for six months to a year, county Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said.

“You have to be destitute to qualify,” McPhail said.

Nevertheless, the low-interest loans, which McPhail said could average about $150,000 for some of the county’s 2,100 growers, will help farmers through the tough years ahead.

“They are looking at the long term,” McPhail said.

The four-day freeze that began Dec. 21 destroyed 23% of the county’s lemon crop, 32% of avocados, 37% of navel oranges and 27% of Valencia oranges. Losses to strawberry, flower and vegetable crops ranged from 5% to 10%.

Temperatures remained below 27 degrees, the point at which crop damage occurs, for nearly 15 consecutive hours in hard-hit Santa Paula Canyon, north of Santa Paula, McPhail said.

Orchards in the Ojai Valley, where growers lost 70% to 90% of their citrus and avocado crops, sustained 24-degree temperatures for nearly 14 hours Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning.

The freeze temporarily stopped operations at one of the county’s largest lemon packers, Limoneira Associates in Santa Paula, and put hundreds of field workers out of work, officials said.

“It’s going to have a ripple effect on the local economy,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “There are going to be missed car payments, an increased load on public assistance programs, and it will go on and on.”

To minimize the repercussions, Supervisor Susan K. Lacey arranged for representatives from local job training programs, state and federal legislators and a Latino advocacy group to meet Wednesday to discuss job training or English language programs for laid-off farm workers.

Farmers Home Administration’s disaster assistance program provides loans of up to $500,000 at 4.5%, said James McIntire, assistant regional supervisor for Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The criteria for the loans require that growers depend on their farms for the majority of their income and on their families for the majority of labor, except at peak harvest or planting seasons, McIntire said.

McIntire said there is no acreage limit, but that citrus, avocado, flower and strawberry growers who farm more than about 100 acres would probably not be eligible for the loans.