By Clint Thompson
A natural disaster declaration for 18 Georgia counties by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is vital assistance for peach producers impacted by the mid-March freeze.
Chris Butts, executive vice president of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, discussed how important this declaration is for his growers who suffered near 100% loss.
“What the declaration does immediately is open them up for emergency loan programs and other USDA programs, but certainly we would hope that if there’s a move to do an ERP (Emergency Relief Program) type of program, disaster type funding program later on for 2023, that would certainly be beneficial to our peach growers,” Butts said. “We’re still working on ERP payments for 2021 and 2022 to folks that suffered through those weather events. We would certainly hope that if there is conversation about disaster funding for 2023 that this would play a part in that.”
This declaration by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack allows USDA’s Farm Service Agency to extend essential emergency credit to Georgia farmers and follows a months’ long lobbying effort on behalf of Georgia farmers and producers by Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper, House and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairmen Robert Dickey and Russ Goodman, Georgia Agribusiness Council, Georgia Farm Bureau, and Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association as well as many others.
Primary Counties Eligible:
Banks, Crawford, Fannin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Jackson, Johnson, Macon, Madison, Meriwether, Monroe, Peach, Pike, Taylor, Towns, Union, Upson
Contiguous Counties Also Eligible:
Barrow, Bibb, Butts, Clarke, Coweta, Dawson, Dooly, Elbert, Emanuel, Forsyth, Franklin, Gordon, Gwinnett, Harris, Hart, Houston, Jasper, Jefferson, Jones, Lamar, Laurens, Lumpkin, Marion, Murray, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Pickens, Rabun, Schley, Spalding, Stephens, Sumter, Talbot, Treutlen, Troup, Washington, White, Wilkinson
Peaches were the primary crop impacted by the freeze. The multiple nights of sub-freezing temperatures devastated the crop across Georgia.
“The UGA Extension estimations are that somewhere between 95% and 98% of that crop was lost; in essence, the entire peach crop was lost over those few days. The estimates are that a 98% loss would equate to a farm gate loss of $119 million for commercially packed peaches in Georgia. It’s essentially a complete loss,” Butts said. “Some of our guys are able to do some harvesting and sell through their retail outlets, but in terms of a normal production year, we’re looking at a complete loss across the board.
“They’ve had other freeze and weather challenges the last few years, but nothing this severe.”