Senator Deb Fischer, a member of the Senate Ag Committee, reintroduced her Precision Ag Package. The package contains three pieces of legislation that will help America’s producers harness the full potential of precision agriculture. Fischer hopes these bills get included in the next farm bill.

“First of all, we’ve got to get a farm bill passed, and I have some bills that I want to be included in that deal with precision agriculture, because that’s so important. We have the Precise Act, the PAL Act, which is going to help younger farmers, smaller farmers, be able to have loan programs through the USDA to access the technology with precision agriculture. The Last Acre Act is going to require the USDA to be able to get the resources out. So, it’s not just your residence that’s going to have broadband availability, but all the land you have as well, so you can use that new technology.”

She’s hopeful that her legislation will be a part of the reconciliation process.

“As we’re looking at reconciliation, some of those things may have an opportunity to get in reconciliation here in the Senate. Obviously, we have to deal with the bird bath here in the Senate. There are more requirements on what we can include in reconciliation, but in visiting with Senator Boozman and my Republican colleagues, we may try to get some of those issues that are in the farm bill also into reconciliation to get it done earlier. We’re very focused on it, on what needs to be funded, what we’re looking at, and possible changes to funding. President Trump has a mandate, and all of us hear from our constituents about programs that are good and programs that may not be what they used to be because of changes being made. I want to be able to designate priorities that we can fund through reconciliation and make sure we have those priorities that work for our ag producers taken care of.”

More consistent broadband access means more profitability in rural America.

“It’s extremely important. And when we can have that deployment of broadband across rural America, we’re going to see profitability increase because our farmers and ranchers are going to be able to use new technology, make wise decisions, continue to be great stewards of their land and their water, care for their livestock, and be able to tap into that precision ag technology that’s available to help them do that.”