By Christi Lightcap
Agricultural businesses now have easier access to renew their state licenses or registration. On December 1, 2014, the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) launched an online business license renewal service at www.colorado.gov/AgLicense for eight of its regulatory programs.
Businesses licensed with the Anhydrous Ammonia, Certified Weighers, Feed Program, Fertilizer Program, Nursery, Pesticide Products, Restricted Use Pesticide Dealers and Seed Dealers programs will have the option to renew and securely pay for their license renewals online.
“These programs represent 26,000 applicants or products that are available to renew online,” said Commissioner of Agriculture, John Salazar. “It is vital that the Colorado Department of Agriculture utilizes technology that allows us to better serve the residents of Colorado.”
Besides renewing licenses and registrations, businesses can also use AgLicense to update their account information such as adding new products, updating contact information, managing store locations and printing certificates.
A mailing will be sent to those businesses affected by this online application. All future renewal reminders will be electronic. For those that don’t have access, need help renewing online or would like to request a paper application, please contact the AgLicense Help Desk at 1-844-235-3815 or 303-869-9290.
Beginning late 2015, additional functionality will be added to AgLicense to include other Department regulatory programs and functions. Eventually, AgLicense will be the Department’s integrated data repository for managing licenses, certificates, course work, inspections, and other aspects of the agriculture industry.
CDA chose Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI) to install and configure National Agribusiness Technology Center’s USAPlants software to meet the growing needs of their licensing division. This project is vast, spanning a 25-month implementation with three phases to completion. Currently CAI provides data repositories for eight other states including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Vermont, New Mexico, Louisiana, Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky. USAPlants is one of several components of the AgraGuard suite of software products. Additionally, 24 states have implemented at least one component of AgraGuard software, designed by and for state agriculture agencies to automate support for regulating agriculture and food production in their jurisdiction.
Source:colorado.gov