Broadband Grants & No Till Farming

Broadband Grants & No Till Farming. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. USDA is providing additional grant funds to expand broadband access in rural America. The grants total 190-million dollars for Satellite Projects, 3-million for Technical Assistance Projects, and 2-million for Rural Library Broadband Projects. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says – broadband is critical because it opens the way for expansion of business, education, and health care opportunities in rural areas and assists in making the nation's small towns and rural communities more competitive. Vilsack says: VILSACK: There is just simply inadequate access to broadband. It's necessary to have 24th century infrastructure if we are serious about community economic development. A joint Agricultural Research Service-multi-university study across the central Great Plains on the effects of more than 19 years of various tillage practices shows that no-till makes soil much more stable than plowed soil. No-till stores more soil carbon, which helps bind or glue soil particles together, making the first inch of topsoil two to seven times less vulnerable to the destructive force of raindrops than plowed soil. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.