07-04-2025
Disaster Crop Loss Program to impact Pitt County Farmers
GREENVILLE, N.C (WNCT)- The North Carolina Department of Agriculture is enforcing the Agricultural Disaster Crop loss program.
The Pitt County Cooperative Extension, along with all its state partners, have the ability to apply for a piece of the grant because of the extreme weather conditions from 2024. The General Assembly allocated $311 million for the program and $111 million will be allocated to Pitt County alone.
In 2024, a three-month drought and heavy rains from Tropical Storm Debby left Pitt County farmers with $10 million in crop loss and 80 percent reduction in corn yield specifically. The grant is going to be a huge help for farmers trying to get back on their feet after an unforgiving year of weather.
'We are here to decrease your inputs and maximize your yields at the end of the day, that's our job, to make sure that you get your crop in the ground at lowest cost to get the highest yield back,' Crop Specialist, Cooperative Extension, Jonathan Smith said.
'So, for the application process we're setting up appointments. You can call the local extension office, and we'll make an appointment. You can come in. It's going to take about 30 minutes to go through the application,' Smith said. 'You need to bring your 578 form from FSA. And you also need to bring a W-9, which is an IRS form. And we'll go through that and none of your information is going to be saved. It's just going to go through the process and make sure that we get your application in time. The deadline is May 4th, and the application opened to April 1st.'
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