By Justin Walker
Communications Specialist
A new website dedicated to supplying information, tools and advice to America’s farmers and ranchers launched this week.
Farmers.gov brings together the three agencies that make up the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Production and Conservation mission area: Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Risk Management Agency.
“Many farmers are out in their fields using equipment that is connected to satellite and GPS technology, yet when they need to interact with USDA, they have to stop, fill out a paper form and fax or carry it to their local office. That is a real digital divide,” Perdue said. “Our staff is friendly, and they love to see farmers in person, but they know that time is valuable. Producers are working hard to make their farms profitable, so these tools will help get the paperwork done without taking a big chunk out of the day to fill out forms.”
While the website is live now, certain features will not be available until later, such as allowing farmers and ranchers to make appointments with USDA offices, file forms and apply for USDA programs.
The website is mobile friendly and identifies the most convenient USDA office locations for farmers. Additional functions will be added to the site soon, including an interactive calendar, farming success stories, an online appointment feature, digital forms and a business data dashboard.
Once the 2018 Farm Bill is passed and signed into law, plain language program descriptions and eligibility tools will be added.
“As I’ve traveled to 32 states in my first nine months as Secretary of Agriculture, I have consistently heard people express a desire for greater use of technology in the way we deliver programs at USDA,” Perdue said. “It’s my goal to make USDA the most effective, most efficient, most customer-focused department in the entire federal government, and Farmers.gov is a big step in that direction.”