By Clint Thompson
Crop insurance is a necessity that all growers need to utilize. Alabama’s specialty crop producers need only to look back at March to see how one weather event changed the outlook for an entire crop.
Blake Thaxton, executive director of the Alabama Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (AFVGA), said the sub-freezing temperatures over multiple days especially impacted peach, blueberry and strawberry growers in the state. But it also impacted other crops as well.
“We saw it across the board that those were definitely the most affected crops, but even vegetables and citrus in the south part of the state were also hit pretty hard, and I still think we’re seeing some of the effects today, not really knowing completely everything that was affected,” Thaxton said. “Citrus, we won’t have a crop in until the fall, so we’ll see if that affected it or not or if it just slowed it down. It was definitely a tough weather event, and I think events like this make it apparent to our producers that they need to make sure they have crop insurance and other safety net opportunities where they can take advantage of those.”
Counties Included in Disaster Declaration
The U.S. Department of Agriculture included 51 counties in its recent Crop Production Loss Disaster Declaration. Primary affected areas include Baldwin, Blount, Chilton, Clarke, Cullman, Elmore, Escambia, Etowah, Henry, Houston, Mobile, Montgomery, Morgan, Russell, Tallapoosa and Washington counties.
Contiguous counties include Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Choctaw, Clay, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, DeKalb, Geneva, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lee, Limestone, Lowndes, Macon, Madison, Marengo, Marshall, Monroe, Perry, Pike, Randolph, St. Clair, Shelby, Walker, Wilcox and Winston.
Alabama fruit and vegetable farmers in the designated disaster counties following the March freeze events are reminded that they have eight months to apply for federal assistance from the Farm Service Agency.