Biden-Harris Administration Continues Focus of Managing Pandemic, Improving Experience for Ag Producers with USDA Programs

Contact:FPAC.BC.Press@usda.gov

WASHINGTON, February 6, 2023 - Under the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Production and Conservation Business Center (FPAC) continued its strong support of mission delivery for USDA’s farmer-facing agencies, including managing the pandemic to ensure safety of staff and office visitors, improving self-service and online options for agricultural producers, and helping USDA better understand producers and their participation in USDA programs.  

“The Business Center supports USDA’s farmer-facing agencies, providing mission support from human resources to homeland security,” said FPAC Chief Operating Officer Robert Ibarra. “With that in mind, many of our investments in 2022 focused on improving the customer service experience for agricultural producers by adapting the way we do business and creating innovative ways to interact and ask for feedback from our customers.”  

In the past two years, the Business Center: 

• Advanced the Incident Management Team to continue to help FSA, NRCS and RMA deliver programs amid the pandemic. This included developing the first USDA Workforce Safety Plan protecting more than 100,000 employees as well as more than 40 incident management and COVID data analysis tools to help with decision making. Additionally, this Business Center team developed and implemented the first facility staffing standards in Federal Government, based on COVID risk at the county level.
• Expanded features for producers who log into their farmers.gov profiles. With the goal to increase ease of use, the process for producers and partners to access and conduct business with USDA in the internal portal side of farmers.gov was streamlined. A new feature allows individuals or entities to act on behalf of other individuals or entities. Also, producers can now access farmers.gov on any device including cell phones and tablets. Efficiency in communicating with customers through farmers.gov has improved. Now NRCS customers receive a reminder e-mail when a document needs to be signed, they can view most of their payments and can request technical assistance from a local field office. Features including maps, imagery and data sets have been enhanced and expanded. 
• Increased resources available on farmers.gov for all producers and ag organizations. More than 200 new webpages were built to highlight priority programs, topics, and blogs, including adding Spanish translations of farm loan discovery and service center locator tools. Resources were organized to make searching easier for specific producer types including beginner, small-scale, urban, organic, women, youth, non-English speaker and LGBTQ+ communities. The latest feature is a data dashboard (currently pilot program launched in Iowa) that compiles comprehensive ag data into one location.
• Launched a customer data survey. An in-depth survey, geared to USDA agricultural producers and partners began in 2022 and will run through March 31, 2023. The survey focuses on programs and services available to USDA’s FSA, NRCS and RMA customers. In addition to the on-line survey 11,000 printed surveys were mailed to stakeholder organizations and farmers markets. To get a true representation from all USDA customers the survey is available in 14 different languages. In 2022, an expanded focus was included in the survey to include prospective customers and learn new ways to engage potential agricultural producers who could benefit from USDA programs.
• Support program development. The Business Center supports various functions on program implementation, from designing software and systems to writing program rules. In the past two years, these efforts helped improve existing programs as well as build and deploy more than $7 billion in emergency relief. As part of building and implementing programs, the Business Center focuses on finding efficiencies among the USDA agencies that deliver farm programs. In 2023, FPAC will continue to reach out to agricultural producers to gain insight on ways to improve business services and tools that improve the customer service experience for producers.

Created in 2018, the Business Center is home to 15 divisions, which provide operational and enterprise support, everything from human resources to safety for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Risk Management Agency (RMA).  

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.