Help for farmers tied to Iraq vote

Bill offering relief contains timetable

The best hope for North Carolina farmers looking for a quick federal bailout on crop losses from the Easter weekend freeze is ensnarled in the Iraq war showdown between President Bush and Congress.

State agriculture officials and agribusiness advocates say relief for crop disasters is tied to an emergency spending bill for the war in Iraq that has already passed the House and Senate. The president has threatened to veto the bill if a conference committee doesn't remove a timetable for American troop withdrawal and limits to their role in the war-torn country.

"That bill's radioactive," said Jake Parker, national legislative director for the N.C. Farm Bureau. "We're doing everything we can, but we can't influence that war debate."

North Carolina's congressional delegation has mobilized to help snag federal relief money and will likely be joined by politicians from other states struck by an Easter weekend freeze from Michigan to Florida, said Brian Long, spokesman for state Agriculture Secretary Steve Troxler.

Their best bet for immediate relief is the emergency spending bill.

But they'll have to persuade conference committee members to change language in the bill that shuts out growers blitzed by four days of below-freezing temperatures that caused an estimated $111.7 million in crop losses in 85 North Carolina counties.

"We've been working with other members of the delegation to make sure this bill covers the farmers of North Carolina, including victims of the freeze," said Paul Cox, a spokesman for Rep. David Price, a Democrat and member of the powerful Appropriations Committee

If arm-twisting with the conference committee is unsuccessful, it may be late fall before Congress sets aside any disaster relief for freeze losses.

Meanwhile, state and federal agriculture statisticians are fine-tuning preliminary crop loss estimates that show the holiday freeze devastated North Carolina's peach and apple orchards and struck an unexpectedly heavy blow to nursery crops, including trees and shrubs used in suburban landscaping.

More than half of the early tally for North Carolina freeze damage -- almost $58 million -- comes from nursery crops, part of the state's third most valuable agricultural commodity behind hogs and poultry. Fruit and vegetable growers reported $26.5 million in losses.

Once preliminary crop loss estimates are firmed up, they can be used by Gov. Mike Easley to request a federal disaster declaration, said Keith Weatherly, state director of the U.S. Farm Service Agency. President Bush or U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns can also make a declaration without input from Easley.

But a disaster declaration doesn't trigger federal bailout money for crop losses, Weatherly said. It only makes low-interest loans available that can partially offset crop losses from freeze damage.

For fuller federal relief, farmers will have to wait on Congress to pass a bill providing bailout money -- either now or later. Until then, farmers and growers will have to rely on private crop insurance or a bare-bones federal program that doesn't kick in until 50 percent of a farmer's crop is lost.

That's cold comfort to Danny Bynum, a peach grower in Richmond County who said the freeze wiped out all the budding fruit in his 30-acre orchard. His insurance policy covers only 25 percent of his loss.

"Don't have anywhere near what I need to have," Bynum said. "Sure didn't expect to be hit this hard."