Published July 9, 2026 at 4:05 PM EDT

The 2026 crop year is shaping up to be a tough one for Mid-Atlantic farmers, prompting more federal disaster designations across the region.

Virginia is the latest regional state to receive a Secretarial Disaster Declaration from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) due to an unexpected late April freeze.

“It really caused a lot of damage in our fruit trees, wine grapes and actually in some barley that was starting to flower, so we'll see some impacts in some of the small grain crops because of that,” Maryland Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Steve Connelly said.

Maryland secured a disaster declaration for 19 of its counties on June 15 following the frost event, but with Virginia’s latest declaration, adjacent Charles County farmers are now also eligible for support.

And the freeze hasn’t been the only struggle for producers – for months Maryland’s rainfall has been below average.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map released on Thursday shows the majority of Maryland counties remain under severe and extreme drought conditions.

All 23 Maryland counties and the City of Baltimore are now available for federal assistance through a combination of disaster designations due to the freeze and official drought disaster declarations from USDA.

“That automatically makes emergency loans available through the Farm Service Agency at USDA that have a lower interest rate than the market rate to help producers get through the disaster,” Connelly explained.

Maryland livestock producers can also apply for the Livestock Forage Disaster Program, which provides direct payments for those experiencing grazing losses due to drought conditions.

Farmers can apply for both types of assistance through their local Farm Service Agency chapter.

Connelly says the Mid-Atlantic Departments of Agriculture have reached out to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to ask for an ad hoc disaster program, similar to a block grant, to ensure no producers fall through the cracks in accessing federal assistance.

Despite Maryland publicly sparring with the Trump administration over the denial of disaster funding last year following severe flooding in Allegany and Garrett Counties, Connelly says working with USDA has been relatively smooth.

“I think on these drought and freeze disaster declarations, it's generally been nonpartisan. I think the system is really focused on trying to assist producers, so I can't tell you what the outcome of the request will be, but I'm pretty hopeful that because of the damage that's been done that they will want to help us take care of the farmers,” he said.