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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Agriculture Department paid landowners more than $1.77 billion in 2023 for the more than 23 million acres of private land in the Conservation Reserve Program.
The Agriculture Department has more than doubled funding for a program to help rebuild grain storage capacity in regions hit by storms in 2021 and 2022, but agency officials say the additional funds will likely not be enough to cover the high number of applications they have seen.
Farmers and rural entrepreneurs told the House Committee on Small Business on Wednesday they’re often unaware of federal government resources intended to support them.
USDA will dedicate at least $500 million over the next five years to wildlife conservation by jointly leveraging both NRCS and FSA conservation programs and public/private partnerships through its Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) effort.
The chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service expressed confidence that the agency could hire the staff it needs to handle a sharp increase in climate-related funding, despite many applicants for soil conservationist positions lacking a key job requirement – a class in soil science.
Farm groups are calling for Agriculture Department loan program payment rates to be increased in the upcoming farm bill, while agency officials look at other ways to make the programs more accessible and flexible for producers.
The administrator of USDA’s Farm Service Agency, Zach Ducheneaux, says USDA is rethinking the way it structures farm loans to lower the risk of default.