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UPDATE ON USDA'S $3 BILLION CLIMATE SMART AG INITIATIVE, PROGRAMS NOW BEING FUNDED
Mar. 10, 2023
Agri-Pulse reports:
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack plans to speak at Commodity Classic in Orlando Friday morning and will be signing the first two final agreements for the $3 billion climate-smart partnerships program. USDA Undersecretary of Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie told farmers while speaking at the classic on Thursday that USDA authorized funding for 141 projects and recognizes the need to finalize many ahead of the planting season.
Bonnie anticipates moving forward with finalizing a majority of the program's larger packages during the month of March.
USDA will be focusing on execution and delivery in the next two years, Bonnie says. He says the partnerships are important domestically to provide another revenue stream for producers, but also as a model internationally for voluntary, incentive-based partnerships that create value for agriculture that also maintain productivity.
"We're going to have to demonstrate through measurement, monitoring and other things that we can actually provide real results here even as we make sure it pencils out for agriculture and forestry," Bonnie says. He says they've also started talking with colleagues internationally through trade and international policy conversations that this approach can be deployed around the world.
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