Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue will travel to Georgia today to see first-hand the damage the Hurricane Irma caused to crops in his home state.

“We’ve been in constant contact with Secretary Perdue,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black in an interview this week with Southeast AgNet’s Randall Weiseman. “We swapped some texts and within minutes had confirmation that ‘yes, I’ll be there’. That’s the kind of secretary that all of America has and we’re sure proud he’s from Georgia.”

Perdue’s tour will take in damage to the state’s pecan crop, which Black says was hit the worst. “If we have 30 percent crop loss, I think we’d be tickled to death, that’s just a starting point,” said Black. Georgia is the number one pecan producing state.

The secretary will also travel to Florida and Texas next week to survey agricultural damage from both hurricanes Irma and Harvey.

Audio file: Southeast AgNet interview with GA Ag Commissioner Gary Black