The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated all of Arizona a natural-disaster area for drought. Arizona’s 15 counties were covered under the declaration this month.
This means Arizona farmers and ranchers will be able to apply for federal emergency loans. The money will help farmers cover expenses they incurred because of the drought.
Jack Peterson is interim director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture. He said farmers have to show a loss because of the weather to qualify.
“In a situation like this a person needs to be in a spot if he needs to go ahead and get money to help cover. You know if he had to rent additional land or purchase feed or whatever effect it may have had,” said Peterson.
Peterson said Apache, Coconino, Yavapai, Greenlee, Navajo and Mohave counties were added to the natural disaster drought area designation this month.
