USDA DESIGNATES ADDITIONAL GEORGIA COUNTIES AS PRIMARY NATURAL DISASTER AREAS DUE TO DROUGHT

Mon, Apr 27 2026

ATLANTA, GA - Today, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, in coordination with the United States Department of Agriculture, announced that twenty additional Georgia counties have been designated as primary natural disaster areas due to ongoing drought conditions. With this expansion, a total of 146 Georgia counties have now been designated as primary natural disaster areas due to ongoing drought conditions. This Secretarial Disaster Declaration expands previous designations and makes farm operators in newly designated primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loan assistance, provided eligibility requirements are met.

"While Georgia farmers are no strangers to extreme conditions, the severe drought across our state continues to impact Georgia farm families, creating uncertainty and increasing costs at a critical time," said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler J Harper. "This expanded disaster declaration ensures more Georgia producers can access federal resources to help weather these challenging conditions, and I'm grateful to Secretary Brooke Rollins and our federal partners for their continued support of Georgia agriculture."

Primary Counties:

Georgia (20)

Butts, Chattooga, Clayton, Coweta, Dade, Dawson, DeKalb, Fayette, Fulton, Gordon, Habersham, Henry, Jasper, Newton, Pickens, Pike, Putnam, Rabun, Rockdale, Spalding

Contiguous Counties:

Georgia (31)

Baldwin, Banks, Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Greene, Gwinnett, Hall, Hancock, Heard, Jones, Lamar, Lumpkin, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Murray, Stephens, Towns, Troup, Upson, Walker, Walton, White, Whitfield

Contiguous Counties in Adjacent States:

Alabama (3)
Cherokee, DeKalb, Jackson

North Carolina (2)

Clay, Macon

South Carolina (1)

Oconee.

Tennessee (2)
Hamilton, Marion

• Category
• Drought

Media contacts

• Matthew Agvent, Communications Director
• Liz Rivera-Brown, Deputy Communications Director

About the GDA
The Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) is the voice of the state's agriculture community. The department's mission is to provide excellence in services and regulatory functions, to protect and promote agriculture and consumer interests, and to ensure an abundance of safe food and fiber for Georgia, America, and the world by using state-of-the-art technology and a professional workforce.

Find us on Facebook • Follow on Twitter: @GDAFoodSafety •@GeorgiaGrown

For more information, visit https://www.agr.georgia.gov.

Georgia Department of Agriculture
Tyler J Harper, Commissioner
19 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. SW
Atlanta, GA 30334