Excessive rain and flooding caused severe damage in both Charlotte and Lunenburg counties. Farms suffering severe damage may be eligible for assistance under the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) administered by the Charlotte/Lunenburg County Farm Service Agency (FSA).

For land to be eligible, the natural disaster must create new conservation problems that, if untreated, would be so costly to rehabilitate that federal assistance is or will be needed to return the land to productive agricultural use, is unusual and is not the type that would recur frequently in the same area, affect the productive capacity of the farmland, impair or endanger the land.

A producer qualifying for ECP assistance may receive cost-share levels not to exceed 75 percent of the eligible cost of restoration measures. No producer is eligible for more than $200,000 cost sharing per natural disaster occurrence. The following types of measures may be eligible: removing debris from farmland, grading, shaping or releveling severely damaged farmland, restoring permanent fences and or restoring conservation structures and other similar installations.

Producers who have suffered a loss from this disaster should contact the Charlotte/Lunenburg County FSA Office to request assistance from July 16 to Sept. 14.

To be eligible for assistance, practices must not be started until all of the following are met: an application for cost-share assistance has been filed, the Charlotte/Lunenburg FSA County Committee (COC) or its representative has conducted an on-site inspection of the damaged area, the agency responsible for technical assistance, such as the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), has made a needs determination, which may include cubic yards of earthmoving, etc., required for rehabilitation

For more information about ECP, contact the Charlotte/Lunenburg County FSA Office at (434) 542-5121, extension 2.