USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) and Farm Service Agency (FSA) working together have made great strides in making acreage reporting simpler for farmers and ranchers. The Acreage and Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative (ACRSI), seeks to reduce the reporting burden on producers submitting data to USDA.
In listening sessions with producers last year, FSA and the Office of the Chief Information Officer found some common themes emerged:
1) Producers want to provide their information such as acreage reporting data, just once, and expect USDA agencies to share the data internally -‘one-stop’ reporting;
2) Producers currently provide the same information multiple times; and
3) Acreage reporting is inefficient and is not always accurate
ACRSI will standardize data requirements and automate the reporting process. It is a huge step toward one-stop reporting and permits easier identification of discrepancies and misreporting. Ultimately, ACRSI could allow for automated reporting from a producer’s GPS monitoring equipment. Another big benefit: Reduced USDA operating costs and improved data integrity and accuracy
Now we want more input. We believe the public, especially producers, ranchers, and the crop insurance industry may have suggestions to help further reduce the reporting burden. If you have ideas on how to streamline data collection, we’d like to hear from you.
We are continuing the discussion on the USDA Open gov policy gateway website at: www.usda.gov/open. Please provide your suggestions or otherwise participate in the discussion there through the discuss tab. Or see our recently published Federal Register Notice on the RMA website which provides a 60-day comment period for public input regarding ACRSI.