Department of Agriculture

NR18-05
May 14, 2018

HONOLULU – The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, has notified Gov. David Ige that a Secretarial Agricultural Disaster Designation has been approved for Kauai County. The designation comes after heavy rain and flooding between April 13 to 20, 2018 caused severe damage to Kaua‘i’s agriculture industry.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) requested the disaster designation on April 24, 2018, while submitting its preliminary damage report for agriculture in the county.

“The damage from the record-breaking rainfall took an extreme toll on our farmers,” said Gov. Ige. “We need to make sure that all possible assistance for our farmers is available so they can recover and thrive once again.”

“While the state has emergency agricultural loan programs, we also need federal disaster assistance to help get our farmers back in production,” said Scott Enright, chairperson of the Hawai‘i  Board of Agriculture.

The Secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in Kaua‘i  County eligible for consideration for certain assistance from FSA, including emergency loans. Farmers have eight months to apply for FSA emergency loans to cover agricultural production losses as well as physical losses sustained by agricultural operations on Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau. The FSA office on Kaua‘i may be contacted at: (808) 245-9014 Ext. 2.

Farmers may also contact the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Loan Division (808-973-9460) for information on state emergency loans, and loan payment deferrals for those with existing ag loans.

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