To:  Industry Members Impacted by Recent Wildfires and Santa Ana Winds

It's important that California avocado industry members who have been impacted by the recent wildfires and/or Santa Ana winds contact their crop insurance agent within 72 hours of the event to determine possible applicable coverage. Both fire and wind events may be included in certain crop insurance coverage, but agents must be notified within 72 hours.

In addition, the USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) may be able to provide disaster assistance to those avocado growers affected by the wild fires through one of the following programs:

• The Tree Assistance Program provides financial assistance to qualifying orchardists to help them replant or rehabilitate trees damaged by natural disasters (separate from crop insurance).
• The Emergency Conservation Program offers funding and technical assistance to growers to help them rehabilitate land damaged by natural disasters. This program may provide cost share assistance for debris removal, land leveling and shaping, irrigation replacement, and cattle fencing.
• Emergency loans are available to producers located in counties that receive a primary or contiguous disaster designation.

Impacted growers are asked to contact both FSA and their county agricultural commissioner's office as follows:

USDA-Farm Service Agency
Santa Barbara/Ventura County
Daisy Banda
Key Program Technician
Daisy.Banda@ca.usda.gov
805-928-9269 Ex.2

Riverside/San Diego Counties
Desiree Garza
County Executive Director
desiree.garza@ca.usda.gov
760-347-3675 ext. 107

Ventura County
Korinne Bell, Chief Deputy Agricultural Commissioner, Korinne.Bell@ventura.org
Henry Gonzalez, Agricultural Commissioner, Henry.Gonzales@ventura.org
(805) 388-4343, Ext. 2

Santa Barbara County
Debbie Trupe, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner, dtrupe@agcommissioner.com
Stephanie Stark, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner, sstark@agcommissioner.com
(805) 681-5600

A complete list of FSA disaster assistance programs can be found online. For more information about available disaster assistance programs, contact your local U.S. Department of Agriculture office. You can find your local USDA service center by clicking on this link.

Tom Bellamore, President
Ken Melban, Vice President of Industry Affairs
California Avocado Commission