Farming in Nevada. (photo credit USDA)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is standing up a new team that will lead a department-wide effort focused on serving beginning farmers and ranchers.
To institutionalize support for beginning farmers and ranchers and to build upon prior agency work, the 2018 Farm Bill directed USDA to create a national coordinator position in the agency and state-level coordinators for four of its agencies – Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Risk Management Agency (RMA), and Rural Development (RD).
Carolyn Estrada was selected as the USDA Beginning Farmer Rancher state coordinator in Nevada: Carolyn is the Nevada FSA farm loan Chief and state outreach coordinator and has assisted Nevada’s farmers and ranchers with the FSA for the last 27 years. and is excited to have the opportunity to work more closely with Nevada’s beginning farmers and ranchers.
Others on the team coordinating Nevada’s beginning farmers and rancher efforts include, Teri knight, District Conservationist with NRCS; and Ruben Saavedra, District Director with RMA. This is a collateral duty for all team members.
Each state coordinator will receive training and develop tailored beginning farmer outreach plans for their state. Coordinators will help field employees better reach and serve beginning farmers and ranchers and will also be available to assist beginning farmers who need help navigating the variety of resources USDA has to offer.
More on Beginning Farmers
Twenty-seven percent of farmers were categorized as new and beginning producers, with 10 years or less of experience in agriculture, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture.
USDA offers a variety of farm loan, risk management, disaster assistance, and conservation programs to support farmers, including beginning farmers and ranchers. Additionally, a number of these programs have provisions specifically for beginning farmers, including targeted funding for loans and conservation programs as well as waivers and exemptions.
More Information
Learn more about USDA’s resources for beginning farmers as well as more information on the national and state-level coordinators at farmers.gov/newfarmers. For more information on available programs in your area, contact your local USDA Service Center.
New USDA Survey to Measure Areas for Improvement
Also the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last August 7, 2020 a new annual survey of farmers, ranchers and private forestland owners. The survey will help USDA understand what it is doing well and where improvements are needed, specifically at the Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Risk Management Agency (RMA).
A selection of 28,000 producers will receive the survey over the next few weeks, but all farmers are encouraged to take the survey at farmers.gov/survey.
“We want to hear from our customers so we can learn what we’re doing right and where we’re missing the mark,” Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey said. “Good data is critical to good decision-making. The more responses we receive, the better we can understand what we need to do to improve our services to America’s farmers, ranchers and private forestland owners.”
This survey is part of the President’s Management Agenda. It requires High Impact Service Provider agencies across the federal government, including FSA and NRCS, to conduct annual surveys to measure and respond to areas needing improvement.
“We recognize producers and our staff may be experiencing a lot of change in how they interact with USDA,” Farm Service Agency Administrator Richard Fordyce said. “This is a good time to check in with our customers.”
“We will use this input to help improve the delivery of our conservation programs as our sister agencies will do for their programs.” Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Matthew Lohr said.
“We’re about our customers,” Risk Management Agency Administrator Martin Barbre said. “RMA works to provide producers with crop insurance policies that meet their needs and we need to know where we can improve.”
The survey consists of 20 questions and takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. Responses are confidential, and individual responses will be aggregated. The survey will be open for at least six weeks and will be closed once USDA receives a 30% response rate.
Learn more and take the survey at www.farmers.gov/survey.
