United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsak has issued four separate disaster declarations for the state of Illinois due to tornadoes and drought that occurred during the 2023 growing season. Loss assessment reports determined that there were enough sufficient production losses to warrant a federal secretarial natural disaster declaration. One of the designations covers primary counties of Crawford and Clark along with the contiguous counties of Lawrence, Edgar, Jasper and Richland counties in southeastern Illinois. A federal secretarial natural disaster declaration allows the USDA Farm Service Agency to provide emergency loans to local produces recovering from the natural disasters. Farmers in those eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for those emergency loans. Those who are eligible should contact their local USDA service center.