The U.S. Department of Agriculture has not made the case that several hundred Farm Service Agency offices, including six in North Dakota, should be closed. The goal, according to USDA, is to save money on farm program administration. The result, however, would be more inconvenience and lost time in the field for farmers and ranchers.
North Dakota's congressional delegation wants answers from Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns about the proposed closings. The North Dakotans, along with delegations from other farm states, have their doubts about the alleged savings USDA claims. The secretary has not said how much would be saved, nor has USDA compared the alleged savings to the anticipated losses farmers would incur due to additional time spent traveling to more distant FSA offices.
USDA counters that farmers can do their business with FSA online. But that option assumes all farmers are connected to the Internet and that Internet service is available everywhere in farm country. Also, many farmers and ranchers prefer face-to-face assistance for solving problems that might be unique to their operations.
Futhermore, USDA has a poor record of converting to Internet-based services for processing payments for the Livestock Assistance Program. It took more than a year to get that system functioning.
In addition to the question about alleged savings, the delegation wants to know:
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E What analysis has been done on added costs to producers because of increased distance and travel time?
E Has USDA evaluated difficulties that would arise if farmers are required to go to one office for FSA assistance and another for conservation assistance through the National Resources Conservation Service?
E What about quality of service when fewer FSA offices take on additional workloads?
E Is this round of proposed cuts a one-time consolidation or are more closures planned?
The questions are reasonable. They go directly to USDA's justification for reducing easy access to farm programs at a time when farmers are confronting high fuel prices, greater distances to buy all kinds of goods and services and more complicated farm legislation. Instead of making access to FSA offices more difficult, USDA should be adding personnel to already stressed FSA office staffs. After all, FSA's middle name is "service."
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper's Editorial Board.
