AGI and DATA ISSUES
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. USDA Farm Production undersecretary nominee Richard Fordyce agreed at his Senate confirmation hearing to tackle key issues that directly impact producers.
Fordyce says he’s willing to look at the 75-percent farm income requirement to qualify for farm payments …
FORDYCE … “The AGI limit is 900-thousand, well, in most programs I think, it’s 900-thousand dollars adjusted gross income. But yes, absolutely, be happy to, if confirmed, to work with you and your staff to understand, I guess, maybe understand the issue, a little better.”
Fordyce also agreed to follow up on his efforts as FSA chief in the first Trump Administration to modernize farm data collection …
FORDYCE … “The ‘one farmer, one form’ was just, I guess, me thinking about like, what could be something that was short and maybe, got to the point. So, we started to work on that in the first Trump Administration, didn’t quite get it to the finish line, from a modernizing acreage reporting standpoint.”
Fordyce suggested the next step could be ‘paperless’ real-time digital reporting for precision Ag farmers …
FORDYCE … “My hope would be that, as a farmer is planting his or her crop, that they are actually populating an acreage report, as they’re progressing through planting season. I mean, that would be fantastic.”
Fordyce calls such technology modernization “priority one,” and not just for acreage reporting, but for today’s unreliable reporting of foreign buys of US farmland.
