The Department of Agriculture says the investments in the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program will pay off in the form of data on a broad range of conservation practices.
“If we have better data and can understand that data by various soil types, geographies, and others, it allows us to provide tools, anonymous tools, where producers can estimate the impact of climat-smart practices themselves,” Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie said on this week’s Agri-Pulse Newsmakers.
Bonnie was quick to note “privacy is going to be critical” for farmers participating in the programs, but USDA is making sure “that none of [the] data impacts any confidentiality.”
“This actually will help producers have better information, keep it anonymous and allow them to take advantage of emerging markets for climate-smart commodities,” Bonnie said.
USDA unveiled the program last year and eventually tripled the planned funding. All told, the department is investing $3.1 billion in 141 projects – 70 projects receiving between $5 million and $95 million were announced in the first round of funding and 71 smaller-sized efforts were announced in a second round.
Bonnie said USDA has worked with the partners to finalize contracts, a process that began at the annual Commodity Classic in March.
“I think we have four or five left [that are] either signed or close to being signed,” Bonnie said of the larger projects. USDA has started negotiations on the smaller projects.
Bonnie said there is a lot of excitement out in the field to get the projects up and running and the department is working “as quickly as [it] can” to get funds out to producers.
“We're learning as we do this, as are the partners as well,” he said.
Agricultural economists Bernt Nelson with the American Farm Bureau Federation and Arlan Suderman with StoneX are also on this week’s show to discuss this week's USDA commodity reports and the future of the farm economy.
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Suderman said the weather is the biggest variable between the most recent WASDE report and the upcoming report in August.
“We had a lot of stress in the month of June on the crops and we still have some areas under stress now, but we've really gone into a more favorable weather pattern,” Suderman said. “So to what degree will the crops be able to heal?” He is concerned about the time the soybean crop has taken to respond to the shift in weather conditions.
Nelson said it’s unlikely U.S. producers will move their production to focus more on wheat than corn and soybeans due to the war in Ukraine. “When we're talking about an acreage shift, we're talking a little bit about risk and [profitability],” he said, adding that wheat prices would have to increase significantly over an extended period for the U.S. to see a “long-term acreage shift.”
“It will take a little bit more than short-term price incentives,” said Nelson.
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