Survey seeks users’ opinions on USDA programs, services
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ByChristine Souza As part of a national effort, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to hear from California farmers, ranchers and forestland owners in a survey intended to help the agency improve the use of pro- gramsmanaged by theNatural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency andRiskManagement Agency. USDA said it seeks input fromprogram users as part of a new annual survey to learnwhere improvementscouldbemade. “We encourageproducers toparticipate inthisUSDAsurvey, because it isanoppor- tunity for farmers toweigh in and provide meaningful feedbackonhowconservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and others are work- ingwell for themand how they can be im- proved,”CaliforniaFarmBureauFederation federal policyconsultant ErinHustonsaid. NRCSstateconservationistCarlosSuarez said the survey includes 20 questions and should take about 10minutes to complete. Aselectionof 28,000producerswill receive the survey during the next fewweeks. The Trump administration identifiedNRCS as oneof 25high-impact service agencies. Suarez said the survey will allow feed- back from producers “so that we can im- prove our services and efficiency.” In the survey, farmers can weigh in on the use of NRCS programs, such as EQIP,
the Conservation Stewardship Program and others. “Through EQIP, we have been able to provide close to $93 million this year in financial assistance to protect water re- sources, improve air quality and improve our forests that havebeenseverely impact- edbywildfires,” Suarez said. “Through the ConservationStewardshipProgram,NRCS has dedicated $11.5million, which is four times the budget that the agency received in the last three years.” Another areaof focus forNRCS, he said, is providing technical and financial as- sistance to protect groundwater by help- ing watershed organizations and others complywiththeSustainableGroundwater Management Act. R i s k M a n a g e m e n t A g e n c y Administrator Martin Barbre said, “RMA works to provide producers with crop in- surancepolicies thatmeet theirneeds, and we need to knowwherewe can improve.” USDA said survey responses are confi- dential 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. Learnmoreand take the surveyatwww. farmers.gov/survey. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.) ItwouldbeStopQIP’sthirdattempt tope- tition CDFA for a producer referendum to endquota.Thegroup’sfirstattempt, in2019, endedafterCDFAdeterminedStopQIPdid not receiveenoughvalidsignatures tomeet the25%threshold toadvance thepetition. StopQIP is agroupof dairy farmerswho own little or no quota, which entitles pro- ducers a higher price for milk covered by theirquota. First implemented in1969and unique toCalifornia, thequotaprogramis funded by assessing all Grade Amilk pro- ducers, whether they own quota or not, with funds distributed monthly to those who own quota. (ChingLeeisanassistanteditorofAgAlert. Shemaybe contactedat clee@cfbf.com.)
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QIPpetition “legally defective” because it was submitted under Chapter 3.5 using the chapter’s referendumprocedures and voting thresholds for terminating theQIP. For this reason, he said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross should not advance the peti- tion to a referendum. Stop QIP has said it plans to submit a newpetition, but this time under Chapter 3of theFoodandAgriculturalCode,which requiresasuper-majorityvote toterminate theQIP. “We’reverypleased tohavehundredsof signaturesagainandwewill be submitting soon,” the group said of its newpetition.
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