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Lt. Gov request disaster declaration for all of IN

Lt. Governor Becky Skillman announced yesterday that she is requesting the US Department of Agriculture declare all counties in Indiana as primary natural disaster areas.  She says, “There’s not any area in the state of Indiana that I would call ‘good’.”

Skillman says as the drought lingers on, the request to give all farmers the opportunity to apply for assistance becomes even more urgent. 

Lt. Governor Skillman, Indiana’s secretary of agriculture and Indiana Farm Service Agency executive Director Julia Wickard will send a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack making the request.  “The state works very closely with USDA, especially the FSA,” she says.  “This way we can keep up with everything we are seeing and hearing on the ground.”

Fourteen additional counties in Indiana were declared primary natural disaster areas by USDA yesterday.

If the request is granted, the designation would make farmers in all of Indiana’s 92 counties eligible to apply for assistance due to losses caused by this year’s drought.