Listening Sessions For Specialty Crop Growers

Listening Sessions For Specialty Crop Growers

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Washington specialty crop growers will soon have the chance to let the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency and the Washington State Department of Agriculture know whether crop insurance and insurance-type programs that are currently available to them are meeting their needs during listening sessions the agencies will be conducting in February. Chris Bieker, Outreach Coordinator with the USDA Farm Service Agency Spokane Office, explains why they felt the need to have the listening sessions.

BIEKER: The three agencies recognize the importance of specialty crop growers in Washington state, and we are concerned that a lot of the safety net programs for farmers are moving towards crop insurance and another program called the Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program for all crops that are not covered by crop insurance. We would like to hear what would make these safety net programs appeal to the producers more so that we would see more participation in the programs.

Even without the passing of a new Farm Bill Bieker says producers can and should be signing up for either crop insurance or the NAP program.

BIEKER: The difference with the farm bill is that we’re seeing more of a reliance on these programs for a safety net. There may be some changes in the programs depending on what Congress does with the Farm Bill, and we of course don’t know what will come out of the Farm Bill, but everything that we’re hearing is that those programs will become even more important than they are now.

Tomorrow Bieker will talk about what they expect to hear from specialty crop growers at the listening sessions, and the options available to them. For listening session dates, times and locations visit fsa.usda.gov.

That’s Washington Ag Today.

I’m Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.