Troxler: Disaster aid keeps farmers afloat after Helene

NC Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler told the House Agriculture and Environment Committee that while Helene recovery could take years, disaster relief funding provided by the General Assembly has been a lifesaver for farmers.

“2025 was not the best agriculture year we have seen, and now we are in 2026 with high fuel prices, high fertilizer prices, uncertainty,” said Troxler, during a May 6 update to the committee. “Without what you did, we would have already lost a lot of farmers in the state of North Carolina.”

These farmers make up the state’s No. 1 industry, generating $111 billion annually.

“The disaster relief funds have been a lifeline for sure,” said Troxler, who emphasized in the mountains of western North Carolina, there is a broad spectrum of damage, from minor to catastrophic.

“The tears are real,” said Troxler.

He said farmers thank him with tears streaming down their face, making him grateful for the impact he can have on their lives.

Troxler noted that with disasters like Helene, there is a surge to help in the immediate aftermath, but as time goes on and life begins to return to normal, “that zeal to help goes away.” With a disaster like Helene, “we cannot do that this time,” said Troxler. 

Troxler emphasized that, from the beginning, it was known this would be a years-long recovery process, not a short-term fix. In fact, he indicated that he agreed with county officials who had told him that “we would be lucky” if, in five years, some sense of normalcy had returned. 

Hurricane Helene resulted in $5 billion in agricultural losses, stated Troxler. 

The NCDA&CS received approximately 7,500 applications for disaster relief aid in 2025, according to Troxler. Infrastructure will likely be the largest loss from Hurricane Helene. 

According to Troxler, the amount of funding available for state-level spending wasn’t finalized until August 2025. By Sept. 23, 90% of applications were completed, and payments were processed within the month. 

During the Mountain State Fair in 2025, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) offered NCDA&CS a $221 million block grant for infrastructure losses and other needs in western North Carolina. The block grant was finalized during USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden’s visit to Raleigh last September. The NCDA&CS had an Oct. 7 deadline to submit a work plan to the USDA for funding use, which was met, only to be immediately followed by a government shutdown. 

The application process for the block grant money is currently underway. As of May 4, 2026, the total distribution of crop money was $290 million. 

“We are not to 100%, but we are getting awfully close,” said Troxler. “We have paid out this money primarily for crops, nursery, and aquaculture claims.”  

For Helene and non-Helene combined, there have been: 6,977 crop payments, 655 nursery payments, seven aquaculture payments, and 296 infrastructure payments, with a total of 7,895 cleared payments as of May 4.

Helene’s payments totaled: aquaculture, $849,000; nursery, $81.2 million; crop payments, $13.8 million; and infrastructure payments, $8.6 million. For the rest of the state, there were more than 6,000 crop payments totaling over $167 million and 92 nursery payments totaling over $15 million, according to Troxler. 

The NCDA&CS has a dashboard on its website that tracks the distribution of disaster-related payments across the state and shows which counties have received the most disaster-related funding. 

USDA block grant disaster relief is underway, according to Troxler, but added, as always, with the federal government, lots of strings are attached. 

“We are just now into the application process,” said Troxler. “I want to impress on you, this is not easy, we can’t just write a check, it has to be verifiable… There’s no way that we are going to put money out without being absolutely sure that we have done it the right way; that is part of the length of the process.” 

According to Troxler, the process has taken time because they wanted to ensure that proper procedures were followed. 

“I believe that we have done it as close to right as it can be done,” said Troxler. “We are lucky that we are going to have the federal money to do a lot of these things that need to be done with infrastructure.” 

Troxler emphasized that rebuilding infrastructure and reopening roads in western North Carolina will be an arduous process, adding, “But we intend to get it done.” 

In addition to working on the block grant program, the department has also had some of its most active fire seasons during the spring of 2025, and 2026 has already surpassed last year’s total wildfires, according to Troxler, more than double the 10-year average. NCDA&CS is already short-staffed, with 275 open positions, 75 of which are in the NC Forest Service, a division of NCDA&CS. In 2025, North Carolina was the No. 1 state at risk for wildfires.

The block grant covers farm infrastructure cost-share assistance for farm structure repair and replacement, reimbursement for eligible projects already completed, and funding for repairs not yet completed. Cost-share assistance will be available for future economic loss, including perennial crops, poultry, and agricultural operations. All crops must be replanted in 2025 or 2026. Cost-share assistance for harvested or unharvested commodities is also covered. Cost-share assistance is also available for commodity and value-added products, whether harvested or unharvested, or for some value-added products whose value was reduced or destroyed by a power outage. The block grant also covers the timber relief program. 

More information on disaster relief assistance is available here.

“Troxler: Disaster aid keeps farmers afloat after Helene” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.