The Farm Service Agency has completed a major upgrade to acreage reporting, moving producers nationwide onto a new system designed to improve efficiency and reduce paperwork. FSA Deputy Administrator of Farm Programs Jared Hagert says the transition is already showing promising results. He says the new acreage reporting platform was thoroughly tested before launching nationwide.
“We had a great, great opportunity here the first part of this year to get, it was about 89 counties, so two whole states, North Dakota and Maryland, along with some other test counties to really take a good hard look at our new geospatially based acreage reporting. As for the first time ever, we’ve got a geospatially referenced map that ties all of this, all of the land to those reference points. So as we went through and developed the system, ran it through testing, it was extensive, somewhere close to 25 million acres were reported in the system and that ran from about the first part of April until we cut over completely for the whole United States. So we’re all on the same system now.”
The new system is expected to offer more digital options for producers. Hagert says that starts with creating a Login.gov account.
“We will be able to take an acreage report from a producer that logs in on their laptop to login.gov, you know, that’s key. If you don’t have login.gov or signed up for it, take, when you get a chance, you’re having a cup of coffee in the morning, take and sign up for it because it’s the key to USDA programs in the future.”
Hagert says the new reporting system is already saving time for both producers and county office staff.
“Acreage reporting is our number one lift that we have as an agency within the Farm Service Agency. That’s the paramount time, that’s where we spend the time with our staff. Just in the pilot program, we’re looking at 20% time savings, you know, in reporting acres, in the new system, and I have to say that’s going to be our worst number. We’re only going to get better, so it’s pretty exciting when you take a look at it.”
Even as USDA modernizes its reporting tools, Hagert says producers can still work with FSA in the ways they’re most comfortable.
“We heard the undersecretary, Mr. Richard Fordyce, talk about USDA is going to meet producers where they’re at. And that, whether you’re large, small, beginning, veteran, we’re going to meet you where you’re at. And that goes as far as acreage reporting too. I mean, yeah, we are modernizing it, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t report acres the same way you always have. So, you know, that option is always there.”