By Jerry Hagstrom
DTN Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (DTN) -- USDA's Farm Service Agency announced Tuesday that farmers and ranchers filing crop acreage reports with the FSA and participating insurance providers approved by the Risk Management Agency now can provide the common information from their acreage reports at one office and the information will be electronically shared with the other location.
But producers must still visit both locations to validate and sign acreage reports, complete maps or provide program-specific information, the agency said in a news release.
If the farmer fills out an acreage report at an FSA office, that data is shared with the RMA, so if the farmer also goes to an agent to complete documents for crop insurance, the common data will already be there, an FSA spokesman confirmed in an email.
"The same is true if the producer visited the insurance agent first," the spokesman said. "The producer still needs to meet with each agency to conduct business at that agency, but it should be a shorter visit, because some of the paperwork is already filled out if it's his/her second stop."
This new process is part of the USDA Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative. This interagency collaboration also includes participating private crop insurance agents and insurance companies, all working to streamline the information collected from farmers and ranchers who participate in USDA programs.
"If you file your report at one location, the data that's important to both FSA and RMA will be securely and electronically shared with the other location," said FSA Administrator Val Dolcini. "This will avoid redundant and duplicative reporting, and we expect this to save farmers and ranchers time."
"Accuracy in crop reporting is a key component for crop insurance, because an error in this information can affect premiums or claims. This is going to greatly improve efficiencies and reduce mistakes," said RMA Administrator Brandon Willis.
In 2013, USDA consolidated the deadlines to 15 dates for submitting these reports, down from the previous 54 dates at RMA and 17 dates for FSA.
More than 93% of all annual reported acres to FSA and RMA now are eligible for the common data reporting, and USDA is exploring adding more crops.
(CZ/SK)
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