On bone-dry earth covered in dead grass Thursday, Gov. Martin O?Malley formally announced he was requesting drought disaster relief for all of Maryland.
The state?s entire 10-member congressional delegation also wrote to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, urging him to quickly act on O?Malley?s request.
“We?re having one of the worst harvests in decades,” O?Malley said Thursday, with crop losses ranging from 30 to 60 percent. All areas of the state are hard hit, down 5 to 8 inches of rain from normal, but particularly southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore.
The federal designation will allow farmers to qualify for low-interest federal loans, which will take a month to six weeks to process, said Maryland Agriculture Secretary Roger Richardson, himself a grain farmer.
Longtime farmers may have some savings set aside to cope with current conditions, but “if he?s a young farmer, he?s in trouble,” Richardson said.
Farmers growing corn without irrigation are suffering the worst, Richardson said. Without rain, “corn?s finished.”
For dairy farmers, “their hay crop is shot,” he said. “This winter, they don?t have any feed.”
The letter from Sen. Barbara Mikulski and the other Maryland representatives added that the state farmers may lose $150 million due to the drought.
