Hurricane Helene relief effort launches for farmers

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WABE and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization

Georgia farmers can soon apply for more than $500 million in federal funding to help recover from Hurricane Helene. Applications open next week.

Many farmers are still rebuilding after Hurricane Helene devastated the state in 2024. One obstacle: disaster loss programs typically don’t cover some key expenses, including replanting multi-year crops like pecan trees and blueberry bushes or replacing flocks lost after the storm destroyed a poultry barn.

Those gaps have been particularly stark in Georgia in the wake of Helene, which did significant damage to the state’s pecan, poultry and timber farms.

“When you think of pecans, poultry, timber – we’re the number one producer in those commodity areas,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper. “They are a significantly important part of our agricultural industry.”

Other disaster relief funding also doesn’t pay for some critical infrastructure projects, like replacing irrigation systems that got torn up as the storm uprooted trees.

US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins visited the state capitol Tuesday to announce the funding and discuss other agriculture issues.

“President Trump understands that farmers were so negatively impacted, and of course we have to continue to stand by them,” she told the state House of Representatives. “The only fault now would be us not doing our part to help Georgia’s great agricultural and forestry communities.”

Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff both applauded the new program. They’ve been pushing for these funds to be released to farmers since Congress passed a $21 billion agricultural disaster relief package in late 2024.

“This announcement is welcome news for the Georgia producers and farmers that have been forced to wait far too long for this desperately needed relief,” Warnock wrote in a statement. 

Rollins addressed the delay in her appearance at the state capitol, stressing that much of the funding went out within six months but that the block grants were “more complicated because you have to work state by state by state.”

USDA funded a similar program to help Georgia farmers recover after Hurricane Michael hit Southwest Georgia hard in 2018.

War, tariffs and farms

Rollins discussed several other issues facing farmers, including the impact of tariffs and the war with Iran.

The conflict has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for lots of commodities, including fertilizer. That’s driven up prices and jeopardized supplies as many farmers plant for the spring.

Rollins said the administration is “looking at every potential opportunity to support our farmers and our ranchers” in the face of rising fertilizer prices.

“We understand, again, this is an existential issue for the future of America and keeping America safe,” she said. “We want American farmers farming and American ranchers ranching, and they can’t do that with the cost of inputs as they continue to skyrocket.”

Rollins highlighted the administration’s other efforts to lower the costs of agricultural inputs, like removing tariffs on fertilizer and lowering the wage rate for a key visa program used by farm workers. But solutions to the fertilizer issue, she said, “won’t happen overnight.”

Rahul Bali contributed to this report.