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Rain-Soaked Farms Eligible For No-Interest Loans From Western Mass. Nonprofit

CISA

A nonprofit organization is making emergency loans available to farmers in part of western Massachusetts who suffered losses due to the weather this summer.

     Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture is offering no-interest loans up to $10,000 to growers who lost crops or had reduced yields.

          Phil Korman,  CISA’s executive director, said parts of the region had rainfall totals 75 percent above average in July and August.

      " It has varied depending on the farms, but what we have consistently heard this has been in some ways a very hard season for farmers," said Korman.

       The loans are intended to help farmers who are squeezed for cash make it through to the next  growing season.

          It is the fifth time revolving loans have been offered from the emergency fund since it was launched after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.