New Jersey growers get a federal disaster declaration for freeze-damaged crops
Pennsylvania counties got a similar designation last month
It won’t bring back the lost apples or peaches, but New Jersey has secured a federal disaster declaration for the crops damaged in April’s rare heat-freeze sequence.
The declaration, which covers all 21 counties, makes the state’s farmers eligible for emergency federal loans, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced.
A similar designation covering 17 Pennsylvania counties, including Lancaster County, was secured last month.
As much as $300 million in crop losses were reported by both states as the result of record heat on April 15 and 16 that induced the tree-flowering process to pick up the pace, setting them up for the kill that came with the freezes of April 20 and 21.
Growers have been warning that apple crops were destroyed and that any peaches would as scarce as they were pricey.
Gov. Josh Shapiro has described the Pennsylvania damages as “unparalleled.”
It is unusual for temperatures to hit 90 in April, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md.
Rarely, however, have they been followed by such devastating freezes.
Some of the fruit crops, including the strawberries that are now in season, have managed to survive, Ben Casella, national policy director at the New Jersey Farm Bureau, said last month.
He added that Jersey growers are “fully promoting that they’ll have a strong crop of blueberries.”
Cherries and grapes didn’t fare so well, but was too soon to determine the exact extent of the losses.
The disaster designation makes farmers eligible for low-interest loans from the Farm Service Agency, what Sherrill called “a critical first step toward recovering from their crop losses.”
At least farmers won’t be contending with another freeze for a while.
