Source: USDA Farm Service Agency
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 156 counties in Texas as primary natural disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a drought that occurred from Jan. 1, 2014, and continues. Those counties are:
| Andrews | Aransas | Archer | Armstrong |
| Bailey | Bandera | Baylor | Bee |
| Bell | Bexar | Blanco | Borden |
| Bosque | Briscoe | Brown | Burnet |
| Calhoun | Callahan | Carson | Castro |
| Childress | Clay | Cochran | Coke |
| Coleman | Collin | Collingsworth | Comanche |
| Concho | Cooke | Coryell | Cottle |
| Crockett | Crosby | Dallam | Dallas |
| Dawson | Deaf Smith | Denton | DeWitt |
| Dickens | Dimmit | Donley | Eastland |
| Ector | Edwards | Ellis | El Paso |
| Erath | Fannin | Fisher | Floyd |
| Foard | Frio | Gaines | Garza |
| Gillespie | Goliad | Gonzales | Gray |
| Grayson | Hale | Hall | Hamilton |
| Hansford | Hardeman | Hartley | Haskell |
| Hemphill | Hidalgo | Hill | Hockley |
| Hood | Howard | Hutchinson | Irion |
| Jack | Jackson | Jim Wells | Johnson |
| Jones | Karnes | Kaufman | Kendall |
| Kent | Kerr | Kimble | King |
| Kinney | Knox | Lamb | Lampasas |
| La Salle | Lipscomb | Llano | Lubbock |
| Lynn | McCulloch | McLennan | Martin |
| Mason | Matagorda | Medina | Menard |
| Midland | Mills | Mitchell | Montague |
| Moore | Motley | Navarro | Nolan |
| Nueces | Ochiltree | Oldham | Palo Pinto |
| Parker | Parmer | Potter | Randall |
| Reagan | Real | Refugio | Roberts |
| Rockwall | Runnels | San Patricio | San Saba |
| Schleicher | Scurry | Shackelford | Sherman |
| Starr | Stephens | Sterling | Stonewall |
| Sutton | Swisher | Tarrant | Taylor |
| Terrell | Terry | Throckmorton | Tom Green |
| Upton | Uvalde | Val Verde | Victoria |
| Wheeler | Wichita | Wilbarger | Williamson |
| Wise | Yoakum | Young | Zavala |
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Texas also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous. Those counties are:
| Atascosa | Bastrop | Brazoria | Brewster |
| Brooks | Caldwell | Cameron | Colorado |
| Comal | Crane | Delta | Duval |
| Falls | Fayette | Freestone | Glasscock |
| Guadalupe | Hays | Henderson | Hudspeth |
| Hunt | Jim Hogg | Kenedy | Kleberg |
| Lamar | Lavaca | Lee | Limestone |
| Live Oak | McMullen | Maverick | Milam |
| Pecos | Somervell | Travis | Van Zandt |
| Ward | Webb | Wharton | Willacy |
| Wilson | Winkler | Zapata |
Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in New Mexico and Oklahoma also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous. Those counties are:
New Mexico
| Curry | Dona Ana | Lea | Otero |
| Quay | Roosevelt | Union |
Oklahoma
| Beaver | Beckham | Bryan | Cimarron |
| Cotton | Ellis | Harmon | Jackson |
| Jefferson | Love | Marshall | Roger Mills |
| Texas | Tillman |
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas on Jan. 7, 2015, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
Additional programs available to assist farmers and ranchers include the Emergency Conservation Program, The Livestock Forage Disaster Program, the Livestock Indemnity Program, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program, and the Tree Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at disaster.fsa.usda.gov.