Farms receive funds for assistance with storm, frost damage

Date: 12/26/2023

The Healey-Driscoll administration announced $20 million to farms impacted by several severe weather events this year.

The Natural Disaster Recovery Program for Agriculture provided immediate assistance to 347 farmers in Western and Central Massachusetts who experienced significant crop losses due to a deep February freeze, a late May frost event and flooding in July.

Farmers in the area told Reminder Publishing that thanks to the funding, many will not have to borrow large sums to prepare for the new growing season and implement new equipment to preserve more crops in case of another difficult weather season.

The arctic freeze that swept through the state in early February caused damage to the stone fruit crop in Massachusetts, wiping out this year’s peaches and plums.

Phoenix Fruit Farm in Belchertown announced in July that there were no peaches at all, and hardly enough apples to open for picking.

Multiple cold injury events, combined with flooding causing stress to trees that were in standing water for long periods caused near-total crop loss this year and they are hoping to open up again next season.
In May, the overnight temperatures fell to below freezing after most fruit blossoms had set, severely damaging to apple, pear, and grape crops.

When Simple Gifts Farms in Amherst went to harvest their strawberries in May, they thought they had come through just fine with everything covered and protected. When picking began, however, they realized they suffered more damage than they had initially thought.

There were a lot of blossoms out there that just werren’t developing into fruit — which is what happens when there is a frost —and it caused a delay in opening the you-pick strawberry field.

July also saw an unprecedented amount of rainfall, causing destructive flooding in Western and Central Massachusetts, impacting thousands of acres of crops cultivated by more than 110 farms across the region.

For some farmers, the events meant a total loss of their crops for the season, and for others, it substantially reduced or delayed their harvest and their revenue.

The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources estimated that at least 75 farms and at least 1,000 acres were affected from the flooding in July.

Agric Organics LLC is a sustainable urban farm in Wilbraham.

Co-owner Hameed Bello discussed the problems that the weather caused his farm and other farms in the state.

He said, “It’s a long story but we were affected by the weather in terms of destruction to some of our equipment and also flooding. The were also damages from the excess water to the crops causing a decent amount of crop loss. That is what we were faced with.”

Bello said that he hopes this money can help his farm as well as others in the state.

“In terms of what’s going to happen, we are going to be able to use it for replenishing some of the infrastructure that was damaged. Some of the things we are also trying to do is mitigate some of those losses which includes acquiring more tunnels so that when the excess water can go elsewhere,” he said.

There are also ways to prevent losing crops to droughts or freezes by building wells or tunnels for the crops to survive.

Bello said, “A well on the farm helps so you can sort of control your fate instead of waiting to react. You can also look at what type of crops you can get to take into consideration based the amount of water you have. You can also take into consideration for the freeze the tunnels we invest in and knowing that at least the crops in the tunnels are protected if they have the proper setup.”

For extreme cold temperatures you can also purchase material like the McKinstry Farms did in May by covering their crops with Remay cloth to preserve them.

McKinstry Market Garden Inc. has three separate locations in Chicopee, Granby and Hadley.
In July they reported their newest challenge was the Connecticut River flooding at their Hadley farm.
Stone Soup Farm in Hadley sent out an email in July to the Pioneer Valley Farmers list titled “Help us Save Our Garlic.”

The Connecticut River was rising and within a couple of hours, a second email came through, “Never Mind, it’s all under water now. It rose faster than I thought it would.”

Mountain View Farm in Easthampton had 45 acres of vegetables that were all gone.

“After seeing the devastating damage and listening to farmers who lost their livelihoods over the summer, we knew we had to do something to support the agricultural industry. That’s what this funding demonstrates. It provides direct aid to farms,” said Gov. Maura Healey. “This program is helping us put farmers first so they can recover, rebuild, and become more resilient in the face of climate change. We’re grateful to the Legislature for their partnership each step of the way to support our hardworking farmers.”

To receive funding through the NDR Program, applicants were required to be a Massachusetts-based agricultural operation growing field crops, hay and forage crops, or produce crops.

Eligible farms had to demonstrate that they suffered losses of greater than 15% of their total planted acreage during one of the 2023 natural disasters.