{"id":221,"date":"2012-08-08T11:44:59","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T11:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=221"},"modified":"2012-08-09T11:45:54","modified_gmt":"2012-08-09T11:45:54","slug":"governor-omalley-requests-federal-drought-assistance-to-help-maryland-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2012\/08\/08\/governor-omalley-requests-federal-drought-assistance-to-help-maryland-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor O&#8217;Malley Requests Federal Drought Assistance to Help Maryland Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 8, 2012) \u2013 Governor Martin O\u2019Malley has formally submitted a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture requesting a Secretarial Disaster Designation for all Maryland counties impacted by the severe dry weather and excessive heat during the months of June and July. Governor O\u2019Malley sent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.governor.maryland.gov\/documents\/AgLetter.pdf\">the letter <\/a>to Secretary Tom Vilsack of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking with the State Farm Service Agency and the Maryland Department of Agriculture, we estimate that farmers in 13 Maryland counties have lost between 30 and 54 percent of their corn crop,\u201d said Governor O\u2019Malley. \u201cBy requesting this disaster designation, we hope to provide some relief to our local farmers, who are a vital part of Maryland\u2019s economy, and we will continue to work with the Maryland Department of Agriculture and our federal delegation to help our farmers get through this drought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are concerned that Maryland\u2019s farmers may have trouble paying their bills due to the drought that has been impacting parts of the State during the past several months,\u201d said Buddy Hance, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Agriculture.\u00a0 \u201cWe are working closely with both the federal government and local jurisdictions to ensure that Maryland\u2019s farmers are protected during this arid growing season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maryland experienced a dry, mild winter with rainfall amounts that are well below average. This shortfall has continued into the spring and summer, the most critical time for the development of most summer field crops. While the Mid and Lower Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland appear to be the driest regions, data analysis from the National Drought Mitigation Center shows 76\u00a0 percent of the State in at least abnormally dry conditions. Fifty-one percent is in a moderate drought while nearly 30 percent is in a severe drought.<\/p>\n<p>The FSA data show that the following Maryland counties are reporting crop losses at more than 30 percent in 2012:<\/p>\n<p>Anne Arundel<br \/>\nDorchester<br \/>\nSomerset<br \/>\nCalvert<br \/>\nKent<br \/>\nTalbot<br \/>\nCaroline<br \/>\nPrince George&#8217;s<br \/>\nWicomico<br \/>\nCecil<br \/>\nQueen Anne&#8217;s<br \/>\nCharles<br \/>\nSt. Mary&#8217;s<\/p>\n<p>To support Maryland farmers during this time of need, the Maryland Department of Agriculture is offering free testing of grain for the presence of aflatoxins and other toxins, which can be present under drought conditions and are poisonous to livestock.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.governor.maryland.gov\/documents\/AgLetter.pdf\">Read the Governor\u2019s letter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 8, 2012) \u2013 Governor Martin O\u2019Malley has formally submitted a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture requesting a Secretarial Disaster Designation for all Maryland counties impacted by the severe dry weather and excessive heat during the months of June and July. Governor O\u2019Malley sent the letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2012\/08\/08\/governor-omalley-requests-federal-drought-assistance-to-help-maryland-farmers\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[60,26],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-drought-assistance","tag-governor"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}