The Farm Service Agency recently visited Northern California to help farmers impacted by fires over the past few summers.
USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator Val Dolcini recently traveled around California, visiting with organizations and farmers, and also to help some farmers get much-needed assistance. “One trip I took was to visit some of the fire-related damage in Lake County. They have had four fires up there in the last couple of years that have really impacted the farms and ranches in the area,” Dolcini said. “So we have helped with economic recovery up there, debris removal, fence repair, helping to restore buildings that were burned in these fires, and our staff up there has worked very closely with the community to make sure that folks that hadn’t been in our offices before knew that there was assistance they could get from USDA.”
Dolcini also talked with groups about cooperative agreements with the USDA to help with funding for programs that help farmers. He said more cooperative agreements are on the way. “We’ve made cooperative agreements in about 28 states around the country and we’re going to make another round of them before the end of the calendar year,” Dolcini said. “These are not huge sums of money, but I think for a small organization, they help people build critical bandwidth. That’s what the name of the game is. We want as many farm advocates out there in the countryside that we can possibly support. We can’t do it all with the Department of Agriculture, but certainly in collaboration and partnership with groups around the country, we can do a whole lot more.”