Pacific Nut Producer Magazine

Tag: The U.S. Department of Agriculture

  • Input Requested for Deregulation of American Chestnut Developed Using Genetic Engineering

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is reopening public comment on a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and draft plant pest risk assessment (PPRA) prepared in response to a petition seeking deregulation of an American chestnut variety, known as Darling 54. The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) produced this variety using genetic engineering for tolerance to chestnut blight.

    APHIS published the draft EIS for public comment on November 10, 2022. On December 12, 2023, SUNY-ESF informed APHIS that the plant tested was different than the plant listed in the petition. SUNY-ESF submitted a revised petition incorporating name corrections and providing clarification regarding the plant, additional updates and research findings related to molecular characterization, and other minor technical corrections.

    The Federal Register notice of availability of the draft EIS and draft PPRA can be viewed now on the APHIS News page. Beginning June 6, 2025, members of the public can submit comments for a period of 45 days through July 21, 2025, by going to www.regulations.gov and entering “APHIS-2020-0030” into the Search field.

  • USDA Expands Insurance Options for Tree Nut Growers

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expanding crop insurance options for specialty and organic growers beginning with the 2025 crop year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is expanding coverage options by allowing enterprise units by organic farming practice, adding enterprise unit eligibility for several crops, and making additional policy updates. This is the first of several announcements this summer, which will include the expansion of the shellfish policy in the Northeast and new coverage for grape growers in the West and beyond. These expansions and other improvements build on other recent RMA efforts to better serve specialty crop producers and reach a broader group of producers.

    “The Risk Management Agency is excited to expand coverage options for specialty and organic growers including the availability of enterprise and optional units for many producers,” said RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger. “Expanding our coverage options gives producers more opportunities to manage their risks. We will continue to build on our work through future announcements later this summer.”

    The following changes will be made beginning with the 2025 crop year:  

    • Enterprise and Optional Units:
      • Expand Enterprise Units (EU) to almonds, apples, avocado (California), citrus (Arizona, California, and Texas), figs, macadamia nuts, pears, prunes, and walnuts.
      • Allow non-contiguous parcels of land that qualify for Optional Units (OU) to also qualify for EU.
      • Allow EUs by organic farming practice for alfalfa seed, almonds, apples, avocado (California), cabbage, canola, citrus (Arizona, California and Texas), coarse grains, cotton, ELS cotton, dry beans, dry peas, figs, fresh market tomatoes, forage production, grass seed, macadamia nuts, millet, mint, mustard, pears, potatoes (northern, central, and southern), processing tomatoes, prunes, safflower, small grains, sunflower seed, and walnuts. 
      • Expand OUs by organic practice to all remaining crops where OUs are available, and the organic practice is insurable.
    • Walnut Quality Adjustment: Allow sunburned damaged walnuts to be eligible for indemnity payments through quality adjustment.
    • Almond Leaf Year: Expand insurance coverage to younger trees by including trees in their fifth leaf year after being set out.

    These revisions come through the Expanding Options for Specialty and Organic Growers Final Rule published today by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC). This Final Rule will update the Common Crop Insurance Policy Basic Provisions, Area Risk Protection Insurance Basic Provisions, and includes changes to individual Crop Provisions. The enterprise unit availability will continue to be rolled out throughout the year with each crop’s contract change date and RMA will continue to evaluate expanding EUs to additional crops.

    Additional changes in the June 30 Final Rule include:

    • New Breaking Acreage:
    • Reduce administrative burdens on growers and the delivery system by removing written agreement requirements on new breaking acreage.
    • Reduce coverage penalties on perennial specialty crop producers and producers of intensively managed crops, such as alfalfa, when they move to row crop production. This allows for a seamless transition without losing crop insurance coverage.
    • Assignment of Indemnity: Provide flexibility for an indemnity payment to be issued via automated clearing house (ACH) or other electronic means when these methods do not allow for multiple payees.
    • Good Farming Practices (GFP): Streamline and shorten the FCIC GFP reconsideration process by closing the administrative file following FCIC’s initial GFP determination.
    • Double Cropping and Annual Forage: Clarify a producer must prove insurance history for the annual forage crop and meet the current double cropping requirements to receive a full prevented planting payment.

    RMA continues to explore ways to improve risk management tools for specialty crop producers and will be announcing additional program enhancements later this summer. Some of those improvements include:  

      Piloting the Fire Insurance Protection – Smoke Index (FIP-SI) crop insurance program for grapes in California for the 2025 crop year. The pilot program is an index-based endorsement to the Actual Production History (APH) Grape policy that provides additional protection against smoke damage and covers the liability between the APH policy’s coverage level and 95%.

      Expanding the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) to walnuts and citrus crops and increasing premium support to be consistent with the Supplemental Coverage Option.

      Expanding the Grapevine insurance program to an additional 29 counties in California. Grapevine insurance offers protection against vine losses in the event of several named perils.

      Releasing new Organic Practice Guidelines to producers for the 2025 crop year. These guidelines are to help producers report planted or perennial acreage insured under a certified organic or transitional practice.

    More Information

    This announcement further advances USDA’s recently announced Specialty Crops Competitiveness Initiative, a Department-wide effort to increase the competitiveness of specialty crops products in foreign markets, enhance domestic marketing, and improve production and processing practices.

    Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locator. Learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net at rma.usda.gov or by contacting your RMA Regional Office.

  • Attention Hazelnut Growers: USDA to Measure Financial Well-being of Northwest Farmers

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will spend several months gathering information about farm economics from farmers and ranchers across the Pacific Northwest, as the agency conducts the third and final phase of the 2023 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).

    “ARMS is the only survey that measures the current financial well-being of producers and their households as a whole,” said Dennis Koong, Director of the NASS Northwest Region Office. “The data will help inform decisions on local and federal policies and programs that affect Northwest farms and farm families.”

    To obtain the most accurate data, NASS will reach out to nearly 40,000 producers nationwide, including almost 2,600 in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington between February and April 2024. The survey asks producers to provide in-depth information about their operating revenues, production costs, and household characteristics. The 2023 ARMS survey includes a version of the questionnaire focused on farm costs of production and expenditures for oat producers.

    “In February, our interviewers will begin reaching out to those farmers who have not yet responded,” said Koong. “We appreciate their time and are here to help them with the questionnaire so that their information will continue to support sound agricultural decision- making.”

    Information provided to NASS is kept confidential, as required by federal law. The agency only publishes data in aggregate form, ensuring that no individual respondent or operation can be identified.

    The expense data gathered in ARMS will be published in the annual Farm Production Expenditures report on July 26, 2024. That report and others are available at nass.usda.gov/Publications. Additional ARMS data analysis and reports are available at ers.usda.gov/arms.

  • USDA Seeks Nominees for American Pecan Promotion Board

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking nominees for the American Pecan Promotion Board. Nominees are needed to fill six seats for members whose terms end on Sep. 30, 2023, and one vacant seat with a term that ends on Sep. 30, 2024.

    The American Pecan Promotion Board is seeking nominees for the following seats:

    • Four producer seats representing the Western Region
    • Two importer seats
    • One vacant producer seat representing the Central Region

    Members appointed to the producer and importer seats will serve three-year terms. The member appointed to the vacant seat will serve a one-year term.

    The Western Region consists of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, plus any states in the U.S. whose land mass is in the Mountain or Pacific Time zones, plus any U.S. territories in the Pacific Ocean. The Central Region consists of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, plus any U.S. state with the majority of its land mass is in the Central Time Zone.

    The board is made up of 17 industry members including ten producers and seven importers.

    To serve on the board, producers and importers must have produced or imported more than 50,000 pounds of inshell pecans (25,000 pounds of shelled pecans), on average, for four fiscal periods. Producers who produce pecans in more than one region may seek nomination only in the region in which they produce the majority of their pecans.

    More information about the board is available on the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) American Pecan Promotion Board webpage or on the board’s website at www.eatpecans.com. You may also contact the American Pecan Promotion Board at industry@eatpecans.com or by phone at (817) 985-3034, or USDA Marketing Specialist Alex Caryl at Alexandra.Caryl@usda.gov or by phone at (202) 253-4768.

    AMS policy is that diversity of the boards, councils and committees it oversees should reflect the diversity of its industries in terms of the experience of members, methods of production and distribution, marketing strategies, and other distinguishing factors, including but not limited to individuals from historically underserved communities, that will bring different perspectives and ideas to the table.  Throughout the full nomination process, the industry must conduct extensive outreach, paying particular attention to reaching underserved communities, and consider the diversity of the population served and the knowledge, skills and abilities of the members to serve a diverse population.

    Since 1966, Congress has authorized industry-funded research and promotion boards to provide a framework for agricultural industries to pool resources and combine efforts to develop new markets, strengthen existing markets and conduct important research and promotion activities. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) provides oversight to 22 boards. The oversight ensures fiscal accountability and program integrity, and is paid for by industry assessments.

  • Tree & Vine Growers Eligible for Ongoing Disaster Assistance for Drought, Wildfire, Etc.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has started making payments through the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program – Plus (WHIP+) to agricultural producers who suffered eligible losses because of drought or excess moisture in 2018 and 2019. Signup for these causes of loss opened March 23, and producers who suffered losses from drought (in counties designated D3 or above), excess moisture, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic activity, snowstorms or wildfires can still apply for assistance through WHIP+. 

    “To date, FSA has received more than 33,000 WHIP+ applications,” said Richard Fordyce, Administrator of USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). “We want to remind producers that we are still accepting applications for WHIP+, and we encourage producers to call our offices for next steps on how to apply.”

    To be eligible for WHIP+, producers must have suffered losses of certain crops, trees, bushes or vines in counties with a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration or a Secretarial Disaster Designation (primary counties only) for qualifying natural disaster events that occurred in calendar years 2018 or 2019. Also, losses located in a county not designated by the Secretary as a primary county may be eligible if a producer provides documentation showing that the loss was due to a qualifying natural disaster event.

    For losses due to drought, a producer is eligible if any area of the county in which the loss occurred was rated D3, or extreme drought, or higher on the U.S. Drought Monitor during calendar years 2018 or 2019. Producers who suffered losses should contact their FSA county office.

    In addition to the recently added eligible losses of drought and excess moisture, FSA will implement a WHIP+ provision for crop quality loss that resulted in price deductions or penalties when marketing crops damaged by eligible disaster events. To ensure an effective program for all impacted farmers, the Agency is currently gathering information on the extent of quality loss from producers and stakeholder organizations.

    USDA Service Centers, including FSA county offices, are open for business by phone only, and field work will continue with appropriate social distancing. While program delivery staff will continue to come into the office, they will be working with producers by phone and using online tools whenever possible. All Service Center visitors wishing to conduct business with the FSA, Natural Resources Conservation Service or any other Service Center agency are required to call their Service Center to schedule a phone appointment. More information on Service Centers can be found at farmers.gov/coronavirus, and more information on WHIP+ can be found at Remind.