USDA strengthens agriculture with FSA support

Jan 17, 2025
By Farms.com

FSA delivers relief and innovation to farmers nationwide

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has made remarkable strides in supporting American farmers and ranchers with disaster assistance, equitable policies, and sustainable agriculture practices.

Disaster Relief Initiatives

FSA enhanced disaster response with programs like LIP and ELAP, providing over $6.6 billion to livestock producers. Additional funds of $1 billion under NAP and TAP supported specialty crop producers affected by natural disasters.

Loan Program Innovations

In 2023, FSA modernized its loan processes with flexible repayment terms and reduced collateral requirements, benefiting 85,000 borrowers. Online tools such as the Loan Assistance Tool have streamlined applications. The Inflation Reduction Act further provided $2.74 billion to distressed farmers, ensuring financial stability.

Promoting Equity and Urban Agriculture

FSA allocated $300 million to underserved farmers for land access and market projects. Urban agriculture initiatives expanded with 17 Urban Service Centers, encouraging small-scale urban farming.

Technological and Climate Advancements

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) added 15.2 million acres, promoting climate-smart agriculture. Technological updates like the FSA Web Environmental Analysis Tool accelerated program access and environmental reviews.

Commitment to Farmers

FSA’s advancements in disaster relief, loans, and sustainability highlight their dedication to America’s agricultural community. These efforts are securing a brighter future for US farmers.

To learn more, visit farmers.gov.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators