The Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Services announced financial help for ranchers and farmers in Nevada.
The state conservationist says Nevada is one of the hardest hit states for drought. Nearly 20% of Nevada is in extreme drought and almost 79% is in severe drought.
Ranchers and farmers have until August 17th to apply for financial assistance at their local USDA service center. For addresses and contact information for the offices throughout Nevada go to http://www.nv.nrcs.usda.gov/contact/
The money comes from $30 million approved for drought relief by the White House Tuesday.
But the Obama administration is calling on Congress to take more action to protect farmers.
"We need some disaster assistance and relief. And the only way we're going to be able to get the full scope of disaster assistance is if the House of Representatives completes work on a farm bill, and it works out the differences between the Senate and House, in terms of comprehensive disaster assistance in a farm bill," says Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
The House passed a $383-million emergency relief package last week, but the Democratic-led Senate refused to take it up before Congress went on summer vacation.
The current farm bills expires at the end of September.
Written by Michael Wolfe
