Progress 04/01/23 to 03/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:As a multiracial coalition, we recognize the pervasive racial disparities impacting Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) farmers' access to federal programs. As such, the target audience of our cooperative agreement consists of historically underserved farmers including BIPOC farmers, young and beginning farmers, urban producers, and growers in the Southeast United States, a region with a pattern of limited access to federal-level assistance. During the reporting period, we've made significant progress toward our goal of supporting these farmers to grow their businesses via USDA FSA Loans such as Microloans, Operating Loans, Farm Ownership Loans, and Farm Enrollment. Nationally, we connected with BIPOC farmers, including Black, American Indian, Asian, and Hispanic Farmers. Although we maintained no specific age cut-off for technical assistance, the majority of farmers served during this period have been classified as "young," or under 45 years old and in their first ten years of farming. Through a productive partnership with the Rural Advancement Foundation International USA (RAFI-USA) we completed intensive outreach focused on the Southeast and provided direct technical assistance to farmers across Southeastern states. Changes/Problems:Through contact with hundreds of farmers and partners throughout the last year, we've learned a lot more specifics about farmers' needs and altered our strategy when necessary to meet them. Quickly, we found that the majority of farmers we worked with expressed reluctance to apply for FSA loans because of existing distrust between BIPOC farmers and the USDA. There is a real fear of the USDA "stealing" their farmland or helping local "bad actors'' steal their farmland. This fear is based on experiences BIPOC farmers' families have had in the past. Several BIPOC farmers with whom we spoke also communicated feelings that it is a waste of time to apply because they "know we are going to get denied" because, in their eyes, the USDA doesn't care or is not invested enough in helping BIPOC farmers. Although we were previously aware of the high level of distrust among BIPOC farmers, we were taken aback by the volume. We're still working out how best to collaborate with farmers who've had bad experiences with USDA before, and with farmers who are presently experiencing discrimination at encounters with local offices. During this project, we've even had farmers contact us about other departments, like the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to express their experience with discrimination, even though they are outside of our project scope. ? Another key takeaway was the high percentage-- 40% --of farmers we've connected with who either have their own farm non-profit or are affiliated with a farm non-profit. Because of their nonprofit status, these farmers are only eligible for USDA farm grants, not loans. With this insight, we are working hard to educate farmers about USDA grants as well as FSA loans, providing technical assistance around which loans would be better for their current farming situations, and helping them with farm plans and cash flow projections. If we were to repeat the project, we might consider adjusting our outreach goals. It takes more time than we anticipated to build farmer trust, and to steward farmers from the initial inquiry form to a complete application. Setting goals that account for this time would be helpful in the future, allowing us the time and space to grow relationships. We might also pay more attention to the deep-seated mistrust BIPOC farmers have of the USDA and talk more about how to market the programs these farmers qualify for, highlighting success stories from other BIPOC farmers. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our Facebook Live recordings and YouTube videos serve as relevant resources that continue to provide farmers, as well as FSA staff, with information relevant to FSA Loans. We've heard from farmers directly, that they have been sharing these resources with their peers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Sharing success stories has been a key strategy of our outreach efforts. We share stories during our in-person events and via our YouTube and Facebook Live videos. Most recently, we hosted a panel where BIPOC farmers shared their experiences navigating FSA Loans. In March 2024, Ebonee Stevenson hosted a presentation to the Young Farmers 49-member staff team to disseminate information about DFAP, its lessons learned, and its challenges. We also continued to share FSA and other relevant USDA information to farmers to our 26,000+ subscribers via our monthly newsletter. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the coming year, Young Farmers will continue to work with partners to reach underserved farmers and connect them with resources available through FSA. Between July and September 2024, we are planning a series of Facebook Lives in response to a high volume of inquiries about Youth Loans, which will be one focus of the series. MicroLoans will be another. Through these and other planned outreach strategies, it's our goal to re-introduce farmers to USDA on new terms, so they can build trusting relationships with the Department and increase participation in their programs. ?
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Throughout the reporting period, the National Young Farmers Coalition continued to provide crucial technical support to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers to access USDA FSA loans such as Microloans, Operating Loans, Farm Ownership Loans, and Farm Enrollment. In the last year alone, we supported BIPOC farmers in securing over 500 acres of farmland as a result of receiving an FSA Loan through this project. This constitutes major progress toward the project's stated goal, namely; to support Young farmers, particularly young BIPOC farmers, in learning about USDA Farm Service Agency loans and how to access them to launch or grow their farm businesses. This goal can be broken down into four objectives and the activities undertaken toward each; Objective 1: Young Farmers staff and partners provide outreach to 3,000 young BIPOC farmers each year, informing them about FSA loan programs. During the grant period, Young Farmers worked with partners to connect farmers across the country with resources available through FSA. With a focus on outreach to BIPOC farmers, we hosted in-person and virtual webinars and Q&As as well as via meetups and community-building events. Chicago was an important locus of our work during the grant period. In May 2023, Young Farmers USDA Access and Accountability Organizer, Ebonee Stevenson, partnered with the USDA A&A Organizer to meet and greet with participants at the USDA Urban Agriculture Center Meet & Greet in Chicago. Later in the summer, Ebonee conducted outreach at two more major events, the Westside Home Ownership Fair in July and the North Lawndale Arts Festival in August, providing information to a combined 200 farmers. In October, Ebonee convened a Local Farmer Meetup, connecting 150 more Chicago area farmers at a four-hour gathering with a focus on skill and knowledge building around FSA. In April 2024, Ebonee met with a small group of farmers on the subject of Navigating USDA Farm Loans. In March 2023, to connect with farmers across the country, Young Farmers hosted a one-hour webinar on "Navigating FSA: Creating A Cash Flow," with 60 attendees. Another, more general webinar on FSA Microloans in March drew 123 attendees. These virtual events were a crucial complement to our in-person activities. In a timely expansion of our planned outreach work, we capitalized on the opportunity presented by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to connect farmers across the country with new lending programs while also engaging in Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP) outreach. In Summer 2023 through Winter 2024, Young Farmers, together with seven other trusted community-based organizations, agreed to serve as cooperators with the USDA and third-party administrators to implement DFAP (Section 22007 of the IRA), which provided $2.2 billion in financial assistance for farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who have experienced discrimination in USDA's farm lending programs. As a cooperator through this financial assistance program, Young Farmers assisted farmers and ranchers who have faced discrimination in prior farm loan processes. During the grant period, we hosted virtual events that reached 6,096 participants/attendees, our team made 1,350 phone calls to producers, and we made 457 referrals for producers to apply to the DFAP program. Although this was a separate project, our outreach attempts and relationship-building related to Section 22007 advanced awareness of, and may yield future interest and participation in FSA Loans and thus constitute crucial groundwork for future outreach, technical assistance, and access. Objective 2: Young Farmers staff and RAFI's technical assistant communicate about FSA loan programs to our networks during one-on-one conversations, listening sessions, and events, reaching 500 additional farmers per year. At the start of the project, Young Farmers established a process for providing technical assistance to farmers. Once a farmer establishes interest in learning more or applying for an FSA loan, our technical assistance process follows these steps: Intake meeting: Set up an initial meeting to discuss qualifications and determine if the producer is eligible Program application review: If the producer is eligible, go over the application with them at a high level Application process and materials review: Then, we orient the producer to the documents that need to be submitted, such as cash flow projections and their farm business plan. Often farmers need support in developing these materials, which can be a time-consuming process, especially in the case of a business plan. Sustained support: Throughout the process, we follow up with them and see if they need any assistance in preparing, compiling, and submitting application materials. Outcomes and follow-through: After submission, the farmer reports back to us with the response from the FSA. If the farmer is awarded a loan, we celebrate! If the application is denied, we revisit it and begin the process to reapply, if that is what the farmer wants. Using this process, RAFI and Young Farmers worked together during the past year to provide technical assistance to 213 farmers in the form of meetings, phone calls, and/or email correspondence. Objective 3: Young Farmers communicates about FSA programs via our social media platforms to our network of young BIPOC farmers using creative ways to educate our farmers: Q&As, Instagram Live sessions, etc, resulting in 60 posts and 40,000 impressions over the course of the grant. Facebook Live and Instagram Live sessions receive 2,500 impressions by our network. During the previous reporting year, we hosted numerous webinars, information sessions, and panels via Facebook Live and recorded webinars. On December 4th, Our Communications Team compiled all of the FSA and other USDA Technical Assistance videos into a YouTube playlist entitled "USDA Access and Accountability Tutorials, Panels, and Workshops" so that farmers can learn more about federal programs available to them. Video topics include navigating farmers.gov, the FSA loan discovery tool, how to apply for DFAP funds, and more. Cumulatively the eight videos in this series have gained a total of 8,062 views to date. Objective 4: Young Farmers communicates about FSA programs via our network newsletter. FSA program information is shared with 25,000 users on our email list 15 times during the application period. During the grant period, Young Farmers distributed two resources, "Microloans Available for Urban Farmers" and "Why you should get a farm number," to our network via the Young Farmers blog and newsletter, which boasts over 26,700 active subscribers. Objective 5: Key partner RAFI-USA provides one-on-one technical assistance to 500 BIPOC farmers in our combined networks over the course of the grant period. We recognize the pervasive racial disparities impacting BIPOC farmers' access to federal programs as well as the relatively limited access to federal assistance available to farmers in the Southeast United States. As such, an objective of our work is reaching these underserved communities. To this end, we continued to meet twice per quarter with sub-awardee and partner, RAFI-USA to connect individual BIPOC farmers and farmers from the Southeast with opportunities through FSA. As a result of this collaboration, 6 young BIPOC farmers have reported receiving a USDA FSA loan following technical assistance.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Why You Should Get a Farm Number
https://www.youngfarmers.org/2023/06/why-you-should-get-a-farm-number/
Abstract Blog post explaining the importance of a USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Farm Number and its various uses; applying for FSA loan programs, crop insurance, and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) programs. Farmers experiencing discrimination while trying to obtain a farm number or access other USDA programs were encouraged to contact Shakera Raygoza, whose contact information is included in the article.
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Progress 04/01/22 to 03/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:As a multiracial coalition, we recognize the pervasive racial disparities impacting Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) farmers' access to federal programs. As such, the target audience of our cooperative agreement consists of historically underserved farmers including BIPOC farmers, young and beginning farmers, urban producers, and growers in the Southeast United States, a region with a pattern of limited access to federal-level assistance. During the reporting period, we've made significant progress toward our goal of supporting these farmers to grow their businesses via USDA FSA Loans such as Microloans, Operating Loans, Farm Ownership Loans, and Farm Enrollment. Nationally we connected with BIPOC farmers, including Black, American Indian, Asian, and Hispanic farmers. Although we maintained no specific age cut-off for technical assistance, the majority of farmers served during this period have been classified as "young," or under 45 years old, and in their first ten years of farming. Through a productive partnership with the Rural Advancement Foundation International USA (RAFI-USA) we completed intensive outreach focused on the Southeast and provided direct technical assistance to farmers across Southeastern states; together, we are currently supporting seven farmers in the process of applying for FSA loans. Changes/Problems:Our project is rooted in a foundational understanding of the significant barriers that exist between BIPOC farmers and federal support from USDA. Even so, we were consistently surprised and challenged by the sheer number of struggling BIPOC farmers reluctant to engage with USDA due to previous experiences of discrimination. This challenge, though not entirely unexpected, emphasized the importance of our project and the urgent need for more like it. Although we're on track to meet our technical assistance goals, we know what we're offering is not proportional to the historical scope of BIPOC farmers' exclusion from USDA. ? Moreover, we've been surprised to find that many BIPOC farmers have opted to organize their farms- especially community-based and educational farms -via non-profit models, making them ineligible for FSA loans. We continue to refer these farmers to other USDA Programs for which they may be eligible and are watching closely to see if the 'Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program' continues into future fiscal years, as this could be a potentially important resource for such operations. Other, more granular challenges arose throughout the grant period. In February 2023, new FSA loan applications posed problems for farmers who flocked to us for solutions. Consistently, farmers came to us for guidance on navigating the complex process of collecting tax records, invoices, and other necessary paperwork for applying for an FSA loan. In collaboration with RAFI-USA, we are in the process of growing our capacity to support and train farmers to better maintain records in advance, and expect to see these tools debut in Fall 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Young Farmers and RAFI-USA participated in various outreach opportunities that dually served as professional development. For example, in October 2022, USDA Access & Accountability Organizer Ebonee Stevenson attended the 2022 Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners National Conference and interfaced with hundreds of farmers. Although our webinars and in-person training target current and aspiring farmers, they can also serve as professional development resources for the broader agricultural service provider community and government agencies looking to better serve farmers from underrepresented groups. We look forward to publishing and disseminating more details for service providers on lessons learned and outcomes of our project as it advances past this initial outreach and planning phase. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In preparation for this project, we conducted initial outreach to farmers, the majority of whom fell into one of the following categories: Were not aware of FSA loan programs; Had heard of the FSA loan programs but were not familiar with the process of acquiring one; Had directly or indirectly experienced discrimination from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and did not trust getting resources from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) The previously cited results of our 2022 National Young Farmers Survey corroborate these findings, indicating that many young and BIPOC farmers nationwide are either under-informed about FSA resources, or feel unable to access them. Disseminating the results of our work during this grant period has been a crucial means to raise public awareness of this issue while growing farmers' awareness of- and access to -FSA resources. To this end, we've publicized our ongoing work via posts on the Young Farmers blog (product one), social media, and via our monthly newsletter, which reaches 26,591 subscribers. Throughout the grant period, we publicized our FSA access programs including deadline announcements, workshops, Q&A sessions, and other resources listed in the publications and products section of this report on Young Farmers' social media and in our newsletter. We have analytics for the workshops and panels hosted on Facebook Live (other products 1,4,5), which reached a cumulative 2,284 users. Of the 12 Young Farmers newsletters sent out during the grant period, FSA access programs were featured in six. We continue to track newsletter readers' engagement with these resources; October 2022: A link to view a recording of our "Farmers share insights into working with FSA" panel (other product 2) was opened by 43% of all those who read the newsletter. November 2022: A link to a recording of "USDA Risk Management Agency Workshop" was opened by 43% of readers February 2023: a link to information regarding additional CFAP2 payments was opened by 48% of all readers. March 2023: A link to information on Conservation Reserve Programs was opened by 45% of all readers. May 2023: A link to a resource document on microloans was opened by 46% of all readers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period (April 2023 - April 2024) we plan to advance our overarching goal of moving federal dollars into the hands of young, BIPOC farmers in the form of FSA loans to support the launch and growth of their farm businesses. We will work closely with RAFI-USA to conduct outreach and technical assistance to increase awareness of and access to FSA Programs in the Southeast. We particularly plan to increase the number of culturally and linguistically appropriate resources to better serve BIPOC farmers and farmers who have traditionally been excluded from federal program marketing. We also plan to scale up our use of phone banking, word of mouth, and social media to supplement our growing virtual resource library. We also plan to refine our tracking process so that we can closely monitor and evaluate farmer progress as they apply for FSA Loans.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Young Farmers and subawardee RAFI-USA are working together to support BIPOC farmers and other farmers from historically underserved populations to access USDA FSA loans, creating and disseminating resources while connecting individual farmers with technical assistance to better navigate the FSA grant process. The results of our 2022 National Young Farmers Survey, released during the grant period, underscored the importance of this work; whereas 88% of young farmers surveyed had never accessed a federal program; 71% of those were unfamiliar with USDA programs, and 26% had applied but were denied. Outreach was the focus of this reporting period, which began with the invaluable addition of USDA Access & Accountability Organizer Ebonee Stevenson to our team. A frontline veteran community development professional, Black urban farmer, journalist, and community-based educator, Ebonee has over 15 years of experience organizing marginalized communities of color. She launched our outreach, starting with a series of four live-streamed virtual events, including a panel of BIPOC farmers discussing their experiences applying for and receiving FSA loans (other product 1), an in-depth tutorial on farmers.gov (other product 4), and others on the Farm Loan Assistance Tool and Farm Loan Discovery Tools (other product 5). Farmers had the opportunity to ask questions and received contact information for Ebonee and Shakera Raygoza, our FSA Technical Assistant, for follow-up. Hosted in June, September, and December 2022 via Facebook Live and promoted on another Young Farmer social media, these events reached 693 viewers in total and appeared in 2000+ users' Facebook feeds (objective 3). Recordings of all four events remain available for future reference on Young Farmer's Facebook and YouTube and continue to gain views, more than 500 to date. Taken together, the cumulative reach of these programs exceeded 3,000 (objective 1.1). Impressive outreach in collaboration subawardee partners at RAFI-USA extended our capacity to an additional 500 farmers (objective 2.1). In February, Young Farmers and RAFI-USA co-hosted a webinar "Farmers share Insights into Working with FSA" (other product 2) for 82 attendees on Zoom and 1,200 on Facebook Live. It has since been viewed 152 times on Youtube. In March, RAFI-USA hosted a series of subsequent webinars, "Farming is a Business," (other product 6). The event drew significant interest, with 178 registrations, 98 people in attendance live, and 124 views on YouTube to date. An accompanying blog post called "FSA Forms to Have on File and Why," (publication 2) has been viewed 125 times. Our virtual outreach is complemented by in-person efforts to connect with target populations, particularly farmers in the Southeast. In October 2022, Ebonee interfaced with 300+ attendees via an information booth at the 2022 Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners National Conference. RAFI-USA attended the Mississippi Cooperative Association Symposium and distributed FSA fact sheets to 65 attendees. In Clarkdale, Mississippi, RAFI-USA attended a Community Supported Agriculture marketing meeting with Mississippi Delta Farm Workers Council, where they discussed FSA loans and marketing with 11 farmers. In Brookhaven, Mississippi, RAFI-USA hosted an FSA Vendors and Borrowers training, connecting farmers there with FSA/NRCS and Alcorn State University extension services. Face-to-face interactions like these establish deeper relationships between our Coalition and RAFI staff and the farmers targeted by our project, establishing the groundwork for more in-depth assistance. ? Although we devoted the bulk of our energy in our first year to outreach and spreading the word, we also made progress towards our goal of providing technical assistance to 500 BIPOC farmers over the grant period (objective 2.1). As a result of our combined outreach, RAFI-USA has already provided direct technical assistance to 10 farmers (8 Mississippi farmers, 1 in Arkansas, and 1 in North Carolina) related to farm numbers, marketing, FSA loans, and crop production. Young Farmers provided direct technical assistance to 24 farmers in the form of meetings, phone calls, and/or email correspondence. Specifically, farmers contacted us with questions about filling out eligibility forms, disaster relief, loan payoffs, and locating contractors for projects. Of the technical assistance provided, most of the farmers reached out to us via our social media platforms or as a direct follow-up to the "BIPOC Farmer Stories on Navigating the USDA Loan Process" webinar. We are currently supporting seven farmers in the process of applying for FSA loans.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Young Farmers USDA Access and Accountability Team supports BIPOC farmers
My name is Ebonee Stevenson, and I am the new USDA Access and Accountability Organizer with the National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers). I am a veteran community organizer, Master Urban Farmer, a community-based educator, and consumer of copious amounts of ramen.
You may be wondering what a USDA Access and Accountability Organizer does and why this new role was created at the Coalition.
My team will provide education and outreach to BIPOC farmers across the US and inform BIPOC farmers about the programs available at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that can help launch or grow their farm businesses. I am excited to be able to serve farmers in this new role.
The United States has a history of discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) farmers. USDA has played a significant role in perpetuating this discrimination, resulting in the loss of generational lands, lack of access to capital, destruction of local food systems, and decreased access to healthy food in the BIPOC communities that those farms served. As a result, many BIPOC farmers do not trust that the Agency has their best interests at heart.
Section 1006(b)(1) of 2021s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) gave the USDA authority to provide funding for cooperators to provide technical assistance and support to economically distressed and/or underserved communities, including Socially Disadvantaged producers, farmers and ranchers with limited access to resources, and veterans.
Shakera Raygoza
Young Farmers, our technical assistance partner for this grant Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI-USA), and 18 other organizations are recipients of these ARPA technical assistance funds. With these funds, I was hired as the USDA Access and Accountability Organizer. Young Farmers USDA Access and Accountability team advocates on behalf of BIPOC farmers, shares the challenges BIPOC farmers are experiencing accessing these programs with the USDA, and ideas for how these programs can be improved. The team also includes a Farm Service Agency (FSA) Technical Assistant, Shakera Raygoza. Shakera, is a Black organic farmer with experience accessing FSA programs herself. Shakera provides one-on-one technical support to BIPOC farmers through the loan application process.
Young Farmers mission is to shift power and change policy to equitably resource our new generation of working farmers. We envision a just future where farming is free of racial violence, accessible to communities, oriented towards environmental well-being, and concerned with health over profit. The the ultimate goal of our USDA Access and Accountability work is to increase the number of young, BIPOC farmers successfully utilizing FSA loan programs, and to hold the USDA accountable for past discrimination against BIPOC farmers.
We are working toward a future where BIPOC farmers can build trust with the USDA and are able to truly have access to the same resources that their white counterparts do. The success of BIPOC farmers is crucial to the success of the U.S. food system. The high quality food grown by young, BIPOC farmers in local and regional food systems improves the health and economic vitality of our communities
If you would like more information about FSA loan programs, or have experienced discrimination in accessing USDA resources, please reach out to ebonee@youngfarmers.org or shakera@youngfarmers.org.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
FSA Forms to have on hand and Why
USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides a wide range of programs and services for farmers, such as farm loans, disaster relief programs, and conservation programs. The presence of local county offices further helps FSA reach and serve farmers across the country. Even so, there are many farmers who do not yet have a connection to their designated local office. At RAFI-USA, we especially hear from farmers that produce on a small or diversified scale, women farmers, beginning farmers, or farmers of color that they dont always feel like FSA programs or FSA staff serve their particular needs and interests.
Benefits of an Active FSA Record
Although these concerns raise valid questions and critiques about how USDA assistance can better support the full diversity of U.S. farmers, its still advantageous for farmers to establish connections with their local FSA office, acquire a farm number, and have their farm information on file.
You will receive the latest updates on FSA programs and services that are available in your county.
When you have a farm number and basic FSA forms on file, you become eligible to apply for other USDA agency programs such as EQIP. Additionally, this means you will have a more streamlined application process for any emergency relief programs that become available after a natural disaster.
In the case of CCC-860, filling out this form means you are marked eligible in FSAs system for certain program benefits, like higher payment rates, dedicated pools of funding, and automatic enrollment in basic NAP coverage. (NAP is a type of financial disaster assistance for eligible crops.)
Being eligible to serve on your FSA county committee.
Breakdown of Important FSA Forms
Heres a breakdown of some of the basic FSA forms. Contact your FSA office and ask if your FSA Farm Record is up to date or active and if all the following forms are on record for the fiscal year.
CCC-941, Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Certification and Consent to Disclosure of Tax Information
This is a form that asks farmers to certify whether the average adjusted gross income of the farmer or business was less than $900,000 in a particular year. Complete annually.
Why: This form is a basic eligibility check for USDA. Farmers who make more than $900,000 in adjusted gross income are not eligible for most USDA assistance.
CCC-902I or 902E, Farm Operating Plan for an Individual (or Entity for 902E)
This form asks you to report information about various aspects of your operation: capital, land, equipment, management, etc. Complete annually.
Why: Some programs may require this form as a part of the application. Another benefit is FSA and USDA will know what commodities youre producing and can send you commodity-specific information and program updates.
AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation Certification
This form certifies that a farmer will not 1) produce an agricultural commodity on highly erodible land without a conservation system; 2) plant on a converted wetland; or 3) convert a wetland for agricultural production. This form should only need to be completed once unless there are any changes on at-risk land or a new section of land is added.
Why: This form is a basic eligibility check for USDA. Program and loan dollars cannot be used for agricultural production on at-risk land.
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