Ga. ag chief meets with farmers in Screven County
SYLVANIA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The Commissioner of Agriculture and Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security are looking at the impact of flooding from Tropical Storm Debby on local farms.
This comes after the commissioner met with farmers in Screven County.
Agriculture is the largest industry in Georgia.
We are the nation’s largest supplier of U.S.-grown peanuts and the second-largest supplier of cotton.
You’ll find both crops growing on some of the 350 farms in Screven County, which are now in jeopardy.
Is aid on the way for Bamberg County flooding victims?
We received updates from federal and Bamberg emergency management officials Tuesday morning after residents remain under an evacuation alert as floodwaters linger nearly a week after Tropical Storm Debby began.
Paved streets are now cement ponds. Dirt roads are now muddy streams lining washed-out fields.
Our drone caught devastation in Screven County from the sky.
Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper saw it from the ground.
“Some flooding and washouts in a lot of our ag fields and, had some peanut fields underwater, some cotton fields underwater,” said Harper.
He says washed-out roads pose a second threat to the peanut fields in Sylvania.
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“If you’re not even able to get to the fields to spray, in a timely manner and peanuts, you know, it’s a fungicide, you know, to address that past and, and possible disease pressures, it can significantly impact, the grades and quality of those, those commodities at harvest time,” he said.
Last week, he met with the governor to discuss an emergency declaration.
It would open the floodgate to aid farmers and other people in south Georgia.
“You can plant on time, you can spray on time, you can harvest on time, you can feed your livestock on time. You can ensure that your calves are born at the right time. You can ensure that everything that you do is almost perfect. Have the best crop in the world. And in one night, one day, you can lose it all,” said Harper.
Harper says people at UGA already estimate a 75% loss in tobacco crops.
His office is still gathering damage reports from farmers. He needs the data in order to get aid from Congress.
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