(Kulfi) — Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) recently announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide assistance to crawfish farmers in the state to help them with their fish farming in the wake of the recent drought that has impacted the crawfish season. Deep sea crawfish have also been adversely affected by their season and are left without any help.
“Whenever any disaster happens, they always leave us out of the loop. We're not allowed to do anything. I don't know why, because we're the crawfish industry,” said Ben Bienvenu, vice president of the Louisiana Crawfish Growers Association.
The drought has caused major problems for Louisiana agriculture, especially crawfish, which make up a large part of the industry, but St. Martin Parish President Pete Delcambre said the fact remains that many crawfish fishermen are left out.
“It would take out 25 percent of Americans who work hard and pay taxes,” Delcambre said.
In March, Congressman Higgins announced a declaration from the Small Business Administration that people in need of post-drought assistance could apply for. Mr Bienvenu said this was not equivalent to the support farmers received.
“If I don't catch crayfish and I can't earn money to pay back the loan, how am I going to pay back the loan? You understand?” Bienvenue said.
“Just being available is not only not the same path that Pond had to take, but it also gets direct disaster funding. It's very onerous and only a small percentage of people can take advantage of this,” Delcambre said.
Delcambre and Bienvenue aim to ensure that all industry players are equally represented, as farmers and fishermen have been affected in the same way.
