JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday it has declared 20 Arkansas counties as primary natural disaster areas.

The declaration follows weeks of severe to extreme drought conditions in the state.

According to the USDA, the designation allows its Farm Service Agency “to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans.”

The loans can be used to replace essential items including equipment or livestock, reorganize a farming operation, or refinance certain debts.

The deadline to apply for the emergency credit is April 3, 2023. For more information, contact your local USDA Service Center.

Primary counties eligible for the loans include:

County	County	County	County
Benton	Boone	Carroll	Clay
Cleburne	Conway	Faulkner	Independence
Izard	Johnson	Lawrence	Madison
Marion	Newton	Polk	Pope
Searcy	Stone	Van Buren	Washington

Contiguous counties also eligible include:

County	County	County	County
Baxter	Craighead	Crawford	Franklin
Fulton	Greene	Howard	Jackson
Logan	Lonoke	Montgomery	Perry
Pike	Pulaski	Randolph	Scott
Sevier	Sharp	White	Yell

Missouri counties eligible for the emergency loans include:

County	County
Barry	Butler
Dunklin	McDonald
Ozark	Ripley
Stone	Taney

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