Excessive rains have prompted Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker to offer a bill to give direct aid to farmers with waterlogged crops.

Senators Cochran and Wicker introduced bipartisan legislation to help farmers nationwide who have seen significant crop losses. The crop disaster legislation is intended to assist farmers who have been unable to harvest crops because of excessive rain since early September.

"These assist payments will be in the form of direct payments to counties where the Secretary of Agriculture has declared a primary disaster. That would be 79 of the 82 counties in Mississippi," explained Senator Roger Wicker.

Agriculture economists at Mississippi State University estimate that crop losses in Mississippi are nearing 485 million dollars in losses.