Cash Sought to Help Drought-Stricken Farmers

Drought-hit farmers will need cash grants in addition to government loans, which could push the cost of emergency U.S. farm aid above $8 billion this year, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Tuesday.

The drought has ruined apple, pear and peach orchards, turned pumpkins into tiny gourds and forced some livestock farmers to cull their herds or sell them entirely. Hot, dry weather has riddled such field crops as corn, soybeans and hay.

Crop losses in the stricken region are likely to exceed several hundred million dollars, Glickman told reporters. He said a formal assessment of damage would be given to lawmakers in the next couple of weeks.

Glickman’s statements came hours before the Clinton Administration declared all of Rhode Island and five counties in Virginia as agricultural disaster areas, clearing the way for farmers to receive low-interest government loans. Farmers in 21 states are now eligible to receive government aid.

“This has been a crushing year for farmers throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast,” President Clinton said in a statement.

Agricultural disasters have been declared in all or parts of nine Eastern states--New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Connecticut, Ohio and Rhode Island--as well as New Mexico and Arizona.

Farmers in some counties in 10 other states also qualify for emergency assistance, because of their close proximity to the disaster declaration states.

Government officials are analyzing the damage in Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Montana, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah and Washington to determine if disasters should be declared in those states as well.

Earlier in the day, Glickman echoed the cries from farmers who say loans will not be enough to help them stay on the land at a time when prices for major U.S. crops are the lowest in a generation.

“By and large, a lot of the farmers who have been wiped out by drought and do not have adequate crop insurance will need more direct assistance than just low-interest loans,” Glickman said while in Baltimore to encourage food-stamp enrollment.

Earlier this month, senators approved a record $7.6-billion farm bailout, focused on offsetting a second year of low grain and livestock prices.

Demands are rising for drought relief as well. If lawmakers try to compensate growers for most of their losses, the price tag for a farm rescue could quickly rise above $8 billion.

Glickman said aid would have to cover such “specialty” crops as fruits and vegetables.

Governors from the region have told the White House that loans are of little use to farmers driven into debt by the drought. They want a federal cash infusion in grants that they would not have to repay.

Although farming is an important part of state economies in the East, the lion’s share of major U.S. crops--wheat, corn, sorghum, barley, oats, rice and cotton--are grown in the South, Midwest and Great Plains.

Record soybean and rice crops are forecast this fall as well as a large corn crop.

Meanwhile, officials reported that most drought-stricken residents in the U.S. mid-Atlantic states should have an adequate supply of water through winter. However, representatives from the Delaware River, Potomac River and Susquehanna River basins said there is still “much concern” about the region’s long-term water supply.

“The drought is having a profound effect on the basin’s water resources,” said Paul Swartz, executive director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, speaking at a Capitol Hill conference. “The situation is extremely serious.”

Swartz said the commission is directing the Army Corps of Engineers to release water surpluses from reservoirs “to relieve the stress on fish and improve habitat and flows for water users.”