Following the passage of Hurricane Irma through the Southeast earlier this week, farmers are starting to assess the damage caused by the winds, tornadoes, rain and storm surge of the storm. While it is far too early to make a total determination of the costs of the damage, here are some stories about what farmers are finding so far.

SoutheastAgNet provided an initial audio assessment from Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black on damage to pecans, fall vegetables and livestock producers at https://southeastagnet.com/2017/09/11/georgia-commissioner-agriculture-irma-impact/.

National Public Radio: Florida’s Farmer Look at Irma’s Damage: ‘Probably The Worst We’ve Seen’ describes losses of 50-60% of citrus that were nearly ready for harvest, unknown damage to sugar cane that was knocked over by the winds, limited damage to vegetables and strawberries which were not yet planted, and a lot of damage to workers’ housing.

Growing Produce: Florida Farmers Digging Out from Impacts of Irma provides a slideshow of damage to citrus and vegetables in Florida.

AL.com: Irma may hurt cotton crop, help peanut crop, farmers say describes the benefits of the rain to peanut growers while high winds may have caused problems with cotton quality.

Growing Produce: Help Extended to Hurricane-Weary Farmers Dealing with Disaster noted that “U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has announced special procedures to assist producers who lost crops, livestock or had other damage to their farms as a result of the two storms. In addition, because of the severe and widespread damage caused by the hurricanes, USDA will provide additional flexibility to assist farm loan borrowers.” This is good news for farmers who will need time to see how much of their crop can be salvaged before they file their final claims.

AgProfessional: Florida Growers Estimate Billions of Dollars in Damage From Hurricane Irma describes the concerns citrus growers have with standing water and how it could damage the citrus trees beyond just losing their fruit as well as potential problems with finding laborers. It also described how losses of the early vegetables will mean a delay in bringing fresh produce to market from November well into January. In Georgia farmers were still assessing if staked vegetables that were blown over could be saved and estimated a loss of up to 30% of green beans at some locations.

Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association: Florida’s Nursery and Landscape Industry Suffers Significant Loss noted that “Florida’s nursery and landscape industry generates $21 billion in total output sales and provides jobs for more than 232,000 people” but noted that it was too early to assess the full scope of the losses yet.

 

Damage to citrus groves at the UF/IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center at Immokalee. Photo by Monica Ozores-Hampton.
Citrus groves in Florida remained under flood waters Sept. 13 after Hurricane Irma. “It’s still too early to know the full extent of the damage to Florida citrus,” Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam said in a Sept. 13 news release.
Photo by Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services