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Thirty-two growers with small farm enterprises that were casualties to January's devastating freeze have been helped by an innovative no-interest loan program offered by the city of Fresno.

Some $468,000 has been loaned to the farmers who lost crops. The ceiling for the loan fund is $500,000, and it is expected the money will be exhausted before a June 30 deadline to apply.

"When crops are wiped out like this, it's a very heavy burden," said Chalee Xiong, who grows green beans and whose winter crop was totally lost. "It helped that the city came up with such a great program."

Like many of the farmers who received loans -- his was the maximum $20,000 -- Xiong used the money to pay for seeds for a new crop, to prepare the soil for planting and to pay rent on the land.

Fresno City Council Members Jerry Duncan and Blong Xiong took the idea of emergency loans for the small farmers -- 334 reside in the city -- to the City Council in March.

Most of the small farms do not have crop insurance and would not otherwise qualify for assistance.

"It sounds like the program has been very successful," Duncan said. He praised the mayor and other council members for supporting the effort, along with partners in the loan program that included Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, the University of California Cooperative Extension and Economic Opportunities Commission.

"The goal in the city is to not have to do this again," he added, explaining that Assembly Member Mike Villines, R-Clovis, will seek state legislation to address disaster needs for small farmers "on a permanent basis."

Blong Xiong said the loan process was a learning experience: "I've learned it takes a little longer than saying, 'Let's get it done.' " He said much of the credit for the effort belongs to the farmers themselves for being "an active voice, helping us understand their plight."

There were 18 loan applicants who did not qualify, said Blong Lee, administrator of the loan program and microenterprise development program coordinator with the Economic Opportunities Commission. "They either did not live in the city or farm in the city or they did not have sufficient credit to qualify," he said.

Among those helped was Tien Sinpraseuth, who received a loan for $13,000. He grows Asian vegetables, farming about 15 acres. He lost about 8 acres to the freeze -- temperatures dipped into the 20s.

"It helped me a lot," he said. "I needed money for seeds, fertilizer, the plastic to cover the rows and to pay for tractor work."

Will Scott Jr., who received a $20,000 loan, said it was "a tremendous help. I was able to get seeds back into the ground so I could have a crop at the end of June."

For weeks, Scott has been taking only half of a pickup load of produce to a farmers market in Oakland, including some collard greens and Swiss chard that escaped the freeze and some potatoes he had in storage.

"This was a pleasant surprise, just in time to save a lot of the small farmers," he said. "Because of the losses, it's taking a while to get back in the game."