USDA Offers Drought Disaster Aid to 41 Mississippi Counties

The USDA is offering drought disaster aid in 41 Mississippi counties.

U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has designated 14 Mississippi counties as primary natural disaster areas because of drought conditions. Another 27 counties are named as contiguous disaster counties.

The designation makes eligible farm operators with extensive drought-related losses in those counties to apply for assistance from the Farm Services Agency. Applications must be made within eight months.

Primary counties included in the designation are: Attala, Carroll, Claiborne, Copiah, Holmes, Lawrence, Leflore, Lincoln, Sunflower, Washington, Leake, Scott, Simpson, and Smith.

Contiguous counties include: Amite, Bolivar, Choctaw, Coahoma, Franklin, Grenada, Hinds, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Madison, Marion, Montgomery, Neshoba, Pike, Rankin, Sharkey, Tallahatchie, Walthall, Warren, Winston, Yazoo, Covington, Jasper, Jones and Newton.