After the Oklahoma Emergency Drought Commission meeting, Radio Oklahoma’s Dale Forbis caught up with Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur about the highlights from the meeting.
Highlights from the meeting include:
- An additional 17 million dollars from the legislature (to fund existing and Non funded projects), plus another 20 million for continuing projects and drought.
- 4025 applications have been funded so far, and 1683 applications have been funded but not completed out of a total of 6047 applications. (2022 unfunded applications remain)
- New members added to the commission: Pete Nichols of Washita County (appointed by the Speaker of the House) and Josh Emerson of McIntosh County (appointed by the Pro Tem)
- The commission is looking at simplifying the process for applicants.
- Discussion on making the Emergency Drought Commission permanent
Arthur is the Chairman of the Emergency Drought Commission and said there was plenty of discussion at the meeting involving making the Emergency Drought Commission permanent.
“I think that is a tremendous opportunity for our producers in the state,” Arthur said. “As many of the folks said today, there is always going to be some type of drought in the state of Oklahoma, depending on where you live.”
As the legislature may be looking into funding the drought commission in more of a permanent capacity, Arthur said this gives the commission the ability to be more prepared to mitigate the impacts of the severe drought and take time to plan.
“These funds are directed to us by the legislature, so these are appropriated funds, and we have a fiduciary responsibility in all of those dollars and want to make sure we are making the best decisions from a taxpayer standpoint, but also ultimately helping ag producers as much as we can,” Arthur said.
There are over 86 thousand farms in the state of Oklahoma, Arthur said, so the funds go quickly when you start dividing them up among producers in the state.
“When you start doing your division pretty quick, to an individual producer, that may not be as significant as you think, but I know we have heard lots of very good success stories of how those dollars have really helped them to navigate through that,” Arthur said.
Many of the dollars allocated have helped producers make long-term improvements to their properties, such as pond cleanouts, that will help in the next drought.
Several producers were in the audience and requested that the process for applying for/receiving drought funds be simplified. Arthur requested some clarity from the districts on what was outstanding and still needed to be completed. That project should be complete in the next two weeks before the drought commission meets again.
