Menu

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is dropping its proposal to consolidate more than 700 Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices nationwide. The plan would have shut the doors on 28 county offices in Ohio and reduced the number of farm loan service centers from 15 to nine.

"Clearly there is strong opposition to closing so many offices and that voice of opinion has rung home with USDA," said Adam Sharp, OFBF's director of national affairs.

USDA had proposed consolidating nearly a third of the nation's 2,351 offices as part of its "FSA Tomorrow" plan, which sought to modernize the agency by improving technology, equipment and personnel training.

"Really we found there was not a consensus in how to approach this at this time," said Ed Loyd, USDA press secretary.

In a letter last week to congressional leaders, USDA Under Secretary J.B. Penn said the agency recognized that opposition to the plan had developed and it was prepared to "set aside" the approach. The letter noted that more than 400 of the nation's offices have two or fewer full-time staff and nearly 500 offices are within 20 miles of the next nearest office.

"We clearly need to address how we can best continue to provide farmers with efficient services given such a structure and the costs of maintaining it," Penn wrote.

Before USDA dropped the proposal, Larry Adams, executive director of the Ohio FSA, had said the plan would have made Ohio's offices more efficient. He said the agency was evaluating every office in Ohio based on workload, staffing and location. The state has 56 FSA offices within 30 miles of another, some with just two employees.

"The goal is to become more efficient and that's the way we have to look at it," Adams said.

He said the workload tends to be heaviest in the Corn Belt but has been reduced in Ohio's tobacco growing counties as a result of the federal tobacco buyout.

The "FSA Tomorrow" plan had not been expected to reduce the number of FSA employees in Ohio, which has a ceiling of 388 for full-time staff.

"We've been held to a ceiling that's been about 20 less than that because of funding issues," said Mimi Garringer, FSA administrative officer, adding that a reduction in administrative costs could allow the agency to hire more employees.

Adams said FSA will always need to have a presence, especially in rural counties, but that many farmers are conducting business electronically. He said 25 percent to 30 percent of Ohio farmers are currently using FSA's online service and that number will increase with the next generation of farmers.

"There's a lot available to producers from their living room," he said.

Loyd said while FSA has dropped the "FSA Tomorrow" plan, it has not lost sight of its goal.

"We are going to continue to work with all of the stakeholders involved – people from local officials, farm and commodity groups and congressional delegations to make sure that we are going to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers and better serve them," he said.