Farmers Facing Ruin From Drought, Governors Warn

Drought conditions along the East Coast have caused more than $800 million in crop losses so far this summer, raising fears that struggling farm families may be driven out of business, state officials say.

Pennsylvania, the region’s biggest farm producer, expects at least $500 million in drought damages, not including losses in dairy and related agricultural businesses.

Maryland put its crop losses at more than $100 million, and New Jersey put its at $80 million, while West Virginia has raised its estimate to $125 million, or about one-quarter of that state’s total annual agricultural output.

Losses are likely to climb much higher, officials said. New York--where, at $3.2 billion a year, the state’s agricultural sector is second only to Pennsylvania’s--has yet to release a dollar estimate.

And Pennsylvania officials point out that their state alone saw total farm losses of nearly $750 million after a much milder drought in the early 1980s.

“Our estimate is extraordinarily preliminary,” said Debbie Lawler of the New Jersey Agriculture Department. “The total will be substantially more than $80 million; we just don’t have the figures yet.”

This week, Delaware also is expected to enter the fray by calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare its lands an agricultural disaster, becoming the last state in the region to do so.

“We’ve never faced the danger of losing resources that we’re facing here this year,” said Gus Douglass, agriculture commissioner of West Virginia, where the National Guard is helping rural towns that have seen wells dry up completely.

The dry spell that began in July 1998 has become the worst drought in at least a generation for states from New England to Kentucky, leaving some farmers with complete losses in crops such as corn, soybeans and hay.

Drought also has ruined apple, pear and peach orchards, turned pumpkins into tiny gourds and forced some livestock farmers to begin selling off their herds.

“We’re afraid we could lose 10% of our farm families because of these conditions,” said Douglass, expressing a sentiment that has begun to echo down the hallways of state governments from Albany, N.Y., to Annapolis, Md.

“Losing crops is devastating, but losing farms to development would be a permanent tragedy,” added Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening.

So far, the USDA has declared farm disasters in the Middle Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; plus Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia among the South Atlantic states; Connecticut in New England; Ohio in the Midwest; and New Mexico and Arizona in the West.

Because disaster declarations also extend to the border counties of neighboring states, farmers from a total of 20 states are eligible for assistance.

But USDA assistance consists mainly of low-interest farm loans, and governors have told the White House that loans are no help to farmers who have already been driven deep into debt to cope with drought-related costs.

The governors want a massive farm sector cash infusion in the form of emergency grants that farmers would not have to pay back.

Last week, New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman asked the House of Representatives to include grants in the fiscal 2000 farm appropriations bill after Congress’ summer recess.

Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas Ridge added his voice on Friday, saying: “We need Congress to award grants for Pennsylvania farmers when it returns in the fall. And I will continue to call for this relief to help our farm families to financially recover.”