State Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt speaks to the House Finance Committee Tuesday about a bill that allocates $10 million to West Virginia farmers for drought relief. Both chambers of the Legislature have approved the bill. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
The state Legislature has signed off on distributing $10 million to West Virginia farmers hard hit by this year’s drought.
The state House of Delegates on Tuesday evening passed Senate Bill 2032 with an 89-2 vote, The bill appropriates $10 million in unappropriated surplus to the Department of Agriculture for agricultural drought relief. The Senate unanimously passed the bill Sunday.
After initially leaving drought relief off the call for the special legislative session, Gov. Jim Justice included it on an amended call he issued Saturday. The Department of Agriculture had asked that drought relief be included on the special call.
Farmers in the state have been feeding their winter supply of hay to their livestock early this year because the grass hasn’t grown in the dry conditions. Some are selling off their livestock early because they don’t have hay or water for them.
Speaking to the House Finance Committee Tuesday, state Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt said the state’s “unprecedented drought,” continues despite recent rain.
According to the latest analysis from the U.S. Drought Monitor, updated last week, several counties in the central and northern portions of the state are experiencing extreme or exceptional drought conditions. All of West Virginia but a portion of McDowell County are either abnormally dry or in a drought.
“I’ve talked to many, many farmers throughout the state, many that have been in the agricultural business for generations, and they all say that this is the worst drought the state has ever seen,” Leonhardt told lawmakers. “We seem to be the epicenter of the drought that is hitting also eastern Kentucky, eastern Ohio, southwest Pennsylvania, western Maryland and eastern Virginia. So we’re right there in the heart of what’s happened.”
The majority of the $10 million will be distributed to farmers for weeding and reseeding pastures in the state, Leonhardt told lawmakers.
The federal Farm Service Agency helps farmers replace forage, a plant that livestock eats, he said. Weeds that thrive in dry conditions are a bigger problem for farmers, Leonhardt said. Weed management and reseeding are not covered by assistance from the Farm Service Agency program, he said.
“We already know that there’s a lot of damage to pasture land throughout the state,” Leonhardt told reporters after the meeting. “So we want to make sure that we can get to the most damaged lands and get them reseeded so they can get back in production.”
Del. Darren Thorne, R-Hampshire, a farmer, testified that some of his fields are “getting destroyed by nightshade,” a weed that’s toxic to cattle, he said.
“This summer …..it got so hot, so dry and so windy, we were down to dirt,” he said. “I felt like I was in Arizona. I mean, there was no grass. So we’re in a bad situation here that we’ve got to get ahead of.”
Thorne said the drought could cost him $100,000 this year.
“Think about that for a minute,” Thorne said. “We’ve got 22,000 [farmers] in the state…Think about the loss that that brings to the state and what that can do to our economy. That’s huge. Now, I’m not sitting here asking for $100,000, I’m just asking for a little bit of help.”
Any money leftover after reseeding and weed management would go toward work on ponds and wells, Leonhardt said.
Leonhardt said he anticipates prioritizing the worst-hit areas of the state by accepting applications first from producers in D3 extreme and D4 exceptional drought areas in West Virginia.
The Department of Agriculture had initially also asked the governor to include extending the state of emergency for the drought on the special legislative call. Leonhardt told reporters Tuesday the extension is not needed for the FSA assistance or the additional $10 million state appropriation.
The drought is anticipated to continue into next year, Leonhardt said.
The bill will now go to Justice, who requested it, for his signature.
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