VDACS Provides Resource Information For Virginia Farmers Impacted By Ongoing Drought

What this means

A factual summary is pending editorial review. The complete official release is reproduced below with issuer attribution and a direct link to the original publication.

Official release

Source material from Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The wording below is the issuer’s statement.

News Release

July 15, 2026

VDACS Provides Resource Information For Virginia Farmers Impacted By Ongoing Drought

Farmers in USDA designated disaster areas should contact their Farm Service Agency office to

determine emergency assistance eligibility

Richmond, Va. – Much of the Commonwealth is experiencing severe to extreme drought

conditions due to the extended lack of rain and dropping water tables. The drought continues to disrupt

planting schedules, reduce crop yields, devastating pastures and forcing emergency hay feeding. Governor

Abigail Spanberger encourages all Virginians to practice voluntary water conservation and has detailed potential actions for some of the most impacted areas of the state.

This includes a possible drought emergency for the Roanoke Drought Evaluation Region if conditions do not

immediately improve.

To date, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued drought disaster designations for

77 Virginia localities. A USDA disaster designation allows emergency loans to be available to producers

suffering losses in the primary designated locality as well as the localities that are contiguous to a

primary locality. Provided eligibility requirements are met, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) will

assess each emergency loan application individually to consider specific circumstances and needs. Farmers

in eligible localities have eight months from the date of disaster declaration to apply for emergency

loans. For more information and to verify exact filing deadlines, farmers should contact their local

USDA

FSA office.

To help farmers determine if their locality has been issued a disaster designation and to provide other

critical resource information, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) has

created a Disaster Recovery

Resources for Farmers webpage. The new webpage also contains information on

the recent USDA disaster designations for localities impacted by the late spring severe frost and freeze

events.

The following Virginia counties and cities have received a USDA primary or contiguous drought disaster

designation in 2026:

Accomack County

Charlottesville (city)

Highland County

Rockbridge County

Albemarle County

Craig County

Isle of Wight County

Rockingham County

Alexandria (city)

Cumberland County

King George County

Russell County

Alleghany County

Danville (city)

Loudoun County

Scott County

Amelia County

Dinwiddie County

Louisa County

Shenandoah County

Amherst County

Emporia (city)

Lunenburg County

Smyth County

Appomattox County

Fairfax County

Lynchburg (city)

Southampton County

Arlington County

Floyd County

Martinsville (city)

Stafford County

Augusta County

Fluvanna County

Mecklenburg County

Staunton (city)

Bath County

Franklin (city)

Nelson County

Suffolk (city)

Bedford County

Franklin County

Nottoway County

Surry County

Bland County

Frederick County

Orange County

Sussex County

Botetourt County

Galax (city)

Patrick County

Tazewell County

Bristol (city)

Giles County

Pittsylvania County

Washington County

Brunswick County

Goochland County

Powhatan County

Waynesboro (city)

Buchanan County

Grayson County

Prince Edward County

Westmoreland County

Buckingham County

Greene County

Prince George County

Wythe County

Campbell County

Greensville County

Prince William County

Carroll County

Halifax County

Pulaski County

Charlotte County

Henry County

Roanoke County

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu), designated localities suffered

from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more

consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.

Farmers should contact their local USDA FSA office for more information and to verify their exact

filing date based on their locality’s date of disaster designation. Application rules can be complex

when navigating multiple designations. For more information on available assistance programs and the

application process, please visit the Virginia FSA State Office website at

www.fsa.usda.gov/state-offices/Virginia.

FSA also has a variety of other disaster recovery programming available for impacted producers. Please

visit www.fsa.usda.gov/resources/programs?assistance_type%5B0%5D=13 or

contact

your local FSA office for

more information.

Release text attributed to Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Consult the official publication for any subsequent corrections or updates.