The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today a comprehensive set of investments to address challenges facing America’s agricultural producers. The $3 billion in investments include assistance to address challenges and costs associated with drought, animal health, market disruptions for agricultural commodities and more. The support will be made available via the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). Specifically, funds will be used to provide:
- $500 million to support drought recovery and encourage the adoption of water-smart management practices.
- Up to $500 million to prevent the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) via robust expansion and coordination of monitoring, surveillance, prevention, quarantine, and eradication activities through USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
- $500 million to provide relief from agricultural market disruption, such as increased transportation challenges, availability and cost of certain materials and other near-term obstacles related to the marketing and distribution of certain commodities, as part of Secretary Vilsack’s work as co-chair of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force.
- Up to $1.5 billion to provide assistance to help schools respond to supply chain disruptions.
Secretary Tom Vilsack also outlined and requested public comments on a new climate partnership initiative designed to create new revenue streams for producers via market opportunities for commodities produced using climate-smart practices.
USDA is committed to partnering with agriculture, forestry and rural communities to develop climate solutions that strengthen rural America. The new initiative to finance the deployment of climate-smart farming and forestry practices to aid in the marketing of climate-smart agricultural commodities. Guided by science, USDA will support a set of pilot projects that provide incentives to implement climate smart conservation practices on working lands and to quantify and monitor the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with those practices. The pilots could rely on the Commodity Credit Corporation’s specific power to aid in expansion or development of new and additional markets.
The Department published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment and input on design of new initiative. Comments may be provided on or before 11:59 p.m. EST on Nov. 1, 2021 via the Federal Register, Docket ID: USDA-2021-0010. Feedback will be used to inform design of the new Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Partnership Initiative. USDA is seeking input specifically on:
- The current state of climate-smart commodity markets,
- Systems for quantification,
- Options and criteria for evaluation,
- Use of information collected,
- Potential protocols,
- Options for review and verification,
- Inclusion of historically underserved communities.
Comments are encouraged from farmers and farmer organizations, commodity groups, livestock producer groups, environmental organizations, agriculture businesses and technology companies, environmental market organizations, renewable energy organizations, Tribal organizations and governments, organizations representing historically underrepresented producers, organizations representing historically underrepresented communities and private corporations.
To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.