Page County applies for disaster relief for drought and loss of crops

PAGE COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - The lack of rainfall has been a concern for Valley farmers all summer.

Much of the region is still in a drought including Page and Shenandoah counties.

Virginia Cooperative Extension has been monitoring drought conditions all summer long.

“Pretty much the whole county was experiencing these conditions so that’s kind of part of why we went through with this it was pretty widespread throughout Page County as well as just kind of the level of damage seen with hay and pastureland this summer,” Elizabeth Mullins, associate extension agent with Virginia Cooperative Extension said.

Mullins has been working with a group of farmers in Page County to determine just how harsh the drought has been on their crops.

“I worked with them to kind of find out what their past yields for their crops have been and what this year’s yields look like, what kind of loss they had experienced and presented that to the board,” Mullins said.

The Page County Board of Supervisors approved the resolution request at Wednesday’s meeting.

“They go on and make a formal request to the governor to declare page county an agriculture disaster area,” Mullins said.

It’s up to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin whether he declares the county a disaster zone.

If he does, Mullins said state and federal disaster relief assistance may become available to Page County farmers.

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