Have the President or Secretary of Agriculture declared or designated your area as a disaster or quarantine area?

If so, do you own or operate a farm or ranch in the primary or an adjoining county?

If you can answer “yes” to both of these questions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (USDA FSA) offers emergency loans that may help you.

Emergency loan funds may be used to:

• Restore or replace essential property.
• Pay all or part of production costs for the disaster year.
• Pay essential family living expenses.
• Reorganize the farming operation.
• Refinance certain debts.

You may borrow up to 100 percent of your actual production or physical losses, up to a maximum of $500,000. Production losses must exceed 30 percent; other terms and conditions apply. View the Emergency Loan Program (PDF, 232 KB) fact sheet for details.

You may get an emergency loan if you’re a farmer or rancher who meets the conditions below:

• You own or operate land in a county declared by the President or designated by the Secretary of Agriculture as a primary disaster or quarantine area. A disaster designation by the FSA administrator authorizes emergency loan assistance for physical losses only in the named and all adjoining counties.
• You are an established family farm operator and has sufficient farming or ranching experience.
• You are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
• You have at least a 30 percent loss in crop production or a physical loss to livestock, livestock products, real estate, or chattel property.
• You have an acceptable credit history.
• You are not able to get credit from commercial sources.
• You can provide collateral to secure the loan.
• You have repayment ability.

Other terms and conditions may apply.

To apply for an emergency loan, you must submit form FSA-2001, Request for Direct Loan Assistance (PDF, 586 KB) and all required documentation to your local USDA Service Center or FSA County Office.