Today, the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asking the agency to consider overall price volatility when determining eligibility for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). Under current rules, a commodity is considered eligible for CFAP if the price of that commodity fell at least 5 percent when comparing two, ... Read More »
From the U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) Sonny Perdue announced last month a final rule updating and modernizing the USDA’s biotechnology regulations under the Plant Protection Act. The Sustainable, Ecological, Consistent, Uniform, Responsible, Efficient (SECURE) rule will bring USDA’s plant biotechnology regulations into the 21st century by removing duplicative and antiquated processes in order to facilitate ... Read More »
Today, growers in Eastern Washington learned many of them would not be eligible for the latest round of aid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Soft red winter, hard red winter and white wheat have been deemed not eligible for the Coronovirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), which sets aside $16 billion for direct payments to farmers and ranchers under ... Read More »
It’s not only farmers who need to get on with the business of growing their crops during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many state and federal agencies that farmers rely on are also still doing business, albeit from a distance. We reached out to some of those agencies to find out what’s going on. Farm Service Agency (FSA). Like most U.S. Department ... Read More »
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) county offices are open by phone appointment only until further notice, and FSA staff are available to continue helping agricultural producers with program signups, loan servicing and other important actions. Additionally, FSA is relaxing the loan-making process and adding flexibilities for servicing direct and guaranteed loans to provide credit to producers ... Read More »
Beginning today, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) service centers will be instituting locked door policies, with no public access to USDA offices. One employee per agency will be permitted in the office (one conservation district employee, one NRCS employee, one FSA employee, etc.) on a rotating schedule. High-risk employees will not be subject to rotation during this full telework plan. ... Read More »
House Agriculture Committee member Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) joined with two of her colleagues, Rep. Jimmy Pannetta (D-Calif.) and Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill), to introduce a bill that would authorize an annual 5 percent funding increase at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In a press release, the group said the bill, The America Grows Act, restores the U.S. public’s ... Read More »
From the Farm Service Agency A new online tool can help farmers and ranchers find information on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) farm loans that may best fit their operations. USDA has launched the new Farm Loan Discovery Tool as the newest feature on farmers.gov, the department’s self-service website for farmers. “Access to credit is critical in the agriculture industry, ... Read More »
From Washington State University Collaborating on plans for a new U.S. Department of Agriculture research facility at Washington State University’s Pullman campus, Dean André-Denis Wright and program leaders in the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) joined scientists from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) June 20 for a meeting and tour of their partnership’s cooperative research. Read ... Read More »
June 3, 2019 – Continuous CRP and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) sign up starts. July 1 – September 30, 2019 – Producers with expiring general CRP contracts can request authority to destroy the CRP cover if the land will be returned to production in 2020. July 15, 2019 – Deadline to report 2018 crop year production for NAP covered ... Read More »
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