Southwest Georgia farmers wait in pain as storm aid stalls in Congress

The fourth-generation farmer had already mortgaged three pieces of land to keep operations afloat on his family’s 3,400-acre cotton and peanut farm about 40 miles south of Albany. Then came October’s Hurricane Michael, which wiped out about 90 percent of his cotton crop and prompted him to make one last Hail Mary move.“This is it,” said Hickey, who recently put up a fourth, 250-acre swath of land as collateral so he could secure financing for his 2019 crops.“I will not and I’m not going to mortgage every piece of property that my daddy and my grandparents have worked so hard to obtain … to keep going,” he said.Hickey’s story is not uncommon in southwest Georgia, where many farmers are resorting to desperate measures as they wait for Congress to approve emergency aid six months after Michael brought the region to its knees.

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/southwest-georgia-farmers-wait-pain-storm-aid-stalls-congress/6TH9OBfIV7EoGFkbDD2yJP/