The U.S. Division of Agriculture authorized Oregon’s request for a pure catastrophe designation after the state’s cherry growers misplaced a mean of 35 p.c of their crop.
The designation cites two climate occasions in July that prompted crop loss: extreme rain in Hood River County and a drought and warmth occasion in Wasco County, in keeping with a information launch from the Oregon governor’s workplace. Underneath this designation, growers within the primarily impacted counties and neighboring counties are eligible to use for emergency loans from the USDA Farm Service Company via October of this yr.
In November, Washington equally requested a Secretarial Catastrophe Designation for the 2023 cherry harvest, and in February, a bipartisan group of the state’s senators and Congress members urged the USDA to approve it. (Oregon’s request was first despatched in September.)
In the meantime, the Northwest Horticultural Council and different business teams have sought catastrophe help funds for Northwest cherry growers. That will require help from Congress, and it’s unclear if or when lawmakers may act on that problem, mentioned Mark Powers, government director of the council, in an replace given to the Washington State Fruit Fee board of administrators in March.
—by Kate Prengaman
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