TOPEKA – Kansas officials welcome an announcement Wednesday that 82 Kansas drought-stricken counties will be declared as federal disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), making agricultural producers eligible for disaster assistance programs.

The disaster declarations are the result of improvements the USDA recently made to current federal disaster assistance programs to update the disaster designation process and deliver more efficient and flexible disaster assistance to farmers and ranchers coping with the ongoing drought.

The designation makes farmers and ranchers eligible for Farm Service Agency (FSA) low interest emergency loans.

This process update resulted in the designation of 1,016 primary counties nationwide as disaster areas effective Thurs., July 12, 2012.  Specifically, 66 Kansas counties will be declared as primary disaster areas and 16 contiguous counties will also receive disaster designations.

Kansas Disaster Designations:

Primary Counties:

Allen, Anderson, Barber, Barton, Bourbon, Butler, Chautquaua, Cheyenne, Clark, Coffey, Comanche, Cowley, Crawford, Decatur, Edwards, Elk, Finney, Ford, Gove, Graham, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Greenwood, Hamilton, Harper, Harvey, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearney, Kingman, Kiowa, Labette, Lane, Linn, Logan, Lyon, McPherson, Meade, Montgomery, Morton, Neosho, Ness, Norton, Pawnee, Phillips, Pratt, Rawlins, Reno, Rice, Rooks, Scott, Sedgwick, Seward, Sheridan, Sherman, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, Sumner, Thomas, Trego, Wallace, Wichita, Wilson and Woodson

Contiguous Counties:

Chase, Cherokee, Dickinson, Ellis, Ellsworth, Franklin, Marion, Morris, Miami, Osage, Osborne, Rush, Russell, Saline, Smith and Wabaunsee