It’s a busy time for Farm Service Agency (FSA) employees across the nation as they assist farmers and ranchers in signing up for new assistance programs, field questions about a farm bill that’s different from any program in recent memory and go through comprehensive training sessions to master those new programs.
“It’s a complex new program,” said Val Dolcini, FSA’s newly appointed administrator. Dolcini was in San Antonio Monday for a National Noninsured Crop Assistance Program (NAP) Buy-up farm bill training session.
“We started in mid-April signing up livestock producers for the Livestock Forage Disaster Program,” Dolcini said in a phone interview with Farm Press. He said Texas and Southwest ranchers have received significant benefits from the LFP, including $470 million in payments to Texas producers who suffered losses during the extensive drought that began in 2010. So far, more than 400,000 ranchers across the country have received payments from LFP,” he said. Read more (Southwest Farm Press).
