FEDERAL LOANS AVAILABLE FOR FREEZE-RELATED LOSSES.Byline: Don Holland Daily News Staff Writer Ventura County farmers reeling reel·ing n. Maine Sustained noise, as from hammering: "Hark that reeling, now, you'll wake the baby!" Anonymous. from $74 million in crop losses due to December's cold snap cold snap Noun a short period of cold and frosty weather Noun 1. cold snap - a spell of cold weather cold spell may soon feel the warmth of federal farm aid. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency is now making low-interest loans available for family size operations in Ventura and 17 other California counties. Loans up to $500,000 are available at 3.5 percent interest. Ross Wileman, vice president of Oxnard-based Mission Produce Inc., said although his company doesn't plan to apply, the loan program is good news for area farmers hurt by the freeze. ``Some of the growers got hit hard,'' Wileman said Friday. ``This will give them an option. As far as we're concerned, we can't see any benefit for us because we weren't hit by it.'' Temperatures in Ventura County dropped into the 20s and 30s during the Dec. 20-24 cold snap damaging orange, lemon and avocado avocado (ä`vəkä`do, ăv`–), tropical American broad-leaved evergreen tree of the genus Persea of the family Lauraceae (laurel family). crops. Farmers fought back with wind machines and irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. , but still reported $74.3 million in freeze-related losses countywide, surpassing the $51 million in crop losses due to last year's El Nino storms. Mother Nature's wrath made 1998 one of the worst years ever for Ventura County's No. 1 industry. ``The availability of loans is always important when you have to rehabilitate re·ha·bil·i·tate v. 1. To restore to good health or useful life, as through therapy and education. 2. To restore to good condition, operation, or capacity. crops,'' said David Buettner, chief deputy agricultural commissioner of Ventura County. ``But we have no idea at this point whether anyone is going to file or has filed.'' The loans are available only to those conducting family-size farming operations. For application information, call the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Communications at (202) 720-5881 or the state Office of Emergency Services emergency services Emergency care '…services …necessary to prevent death or serious impairment of health and, because of the danger to life or health, require the use of the most accessible hospital available and equipped to furnish those services' at (916) 464-0727. |
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