The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued three primary Secretarial natural disaster designations for Virginia localities for extreme weather-related agricultural losses during the 2016 crop year. In addition, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is available to eligible farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that suffered financial losses as a direct result of this disaster.

Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers with additional information. Farmers in eligible areas have eight months from the date of these Secretarial disaster designations to apply for emergency loans.

SBA loan applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application via SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela. Disaster loan information and application forms may also be obtained by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 800.659.2955 (800.877.8339 for the deaf and hard-of-hearing) or by sending an email to disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. Loan applications can be downloaded from the SBA’s website at www.sba.gov/disaster. Completed applications should be mailed to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155. Completed loan applications must be returned to SBA no later than Dec. 12, 2017.