VIDALIA — Even while farmers wait to see if the U.S. Congress will appropriate funds from the 2008 Farm Bill to hurricane recovery for lost crops, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry is working on a plan to help farmers with their losses.

Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain announced in a statement Thursday that he plans to appropriate community development block grants for low-interest loans through the Louisiana Agriculture Finance Authority to help farmers replace lost crops.

Following Hurricane Gustav, there was widespread crop damage of almost $1 billion across the state, and Concordia Parish was hit particularly hard by post-hurricane flooding.

The funding for the proposed low-interest loan program will come from CDBG grants that were approved for Louisiana — among other states — following natural disasters across the country in 2008.

Louisiana is expected to receive $438.2 million in CDBG grants, and the Strain plan looks to utilize approximately $30 million of that.

The state legislature and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will have to approve the plan before it can be put into action.

The Louisiana Recovery Authority supports the plan, according to the statement from the agriculture department.

The U.S. Senate has included language in a proposed stimulus bill that will include aid from the 2008 Farm Bill to farmers who lost crops in this year’s hurricanes, but that money will not come available until late next year, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu’s office said in November.

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry statement said Strain expects for the money to be available in March if the plan is approved.