By Stephen Smoot, The Pendleton Times
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Though drought conditions in Pendleton County and across the state have eased in recent months, for many, the damage has been done.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture, however, announced that more help is on the way.
In the worst of the drought conditions last summer, Pendleton County reached the federal status of D3, Extreme Drought. Parts of the mid-Ohio Valley extending into the central part of West Virginia endured D4 Exceptional Drought conditions, the worst category established by the federal government.
Conditions appeared during an unusually dry and hot summer for the Mountain State. As Kent Leonhardt, West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner, stated in a release “West Virginia’s farmers are facing a crisis unlike any we’ve seen in decades.” He added that “this support is crucial to help them weather the storm, so they can continue their operations.”
The West Virginia State Legislature approved moving $10 million in surplus funds to create the WVDA Drought Recovery Program.
The program benefits livestock farmers already enrolled in the USDA-Farm Service Agency Livestock Forage Disaster Program. According to the federal government website disasterassistance.gov, that program “offers payments to eligible livestock producers with eligible livestock. You must also be a producer of grazed foraged crop acreage.”
