Farmers and ranchers who conduct family-sized farming operations throughout San Joaquin County can apply for disaster relief as a result of the major winter storms that brought historic rainfall to the region in late 2022 and early 2023 and caused widespread flooding.

Information received at the county level recently indicated that, earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted a Secretarial disaster designation for the primary counties of Alameda, Butte, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Placer, Santa Clara, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Trinity, and Yolo and the contiguous counties of Del Norte, El Dorado, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Madera, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Ventura, and Yuba due to agricultural losses caused by ‘Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides and Mudslides’ beginning Dec. 27, 2022.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) provided additional information, including the fact that as a result of the declaration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency Emergency Loan Program has been made available for San Joaquin County. This designation includes emergency farm loans for both physical and crop production losses as a direct result of the disaster, up to a maximum of $500,000.

Emergency loan funds may be used to:

Restore or replace essential property.

Pay all or part of production costs associated with the disaster year.

Pay essential family living expenses.

Reorganize the family farming operation.

Refinance certain non-real estate operating debts.

Application deadline for loans in San Joaquin is Oct. 2, 2023.

Those interested in learning more are advised to contact a local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office, listed in the local telephone directory under U.S. Government, Agriculture.