This bill would change a part of the Food Security Act of 1985 to create and support "farmer-to-farmer networks." It defines those networks as groups of farmers who share information and technical help. The Department of Agriculture (through the Natural Resources Conservation Service) could make cooperative agreements with eligible groups — such as nonprofits, farmer networks, tribes, local governments, colleges, States, and others — to build and support these networks. The bill lists goals: build network capacity, connect farmers with mentors and group learning, support goal-setting for long-term use of science-based, site-specific conservation practices, and set up reporting rules.
Entities that get agreements must do at least two listed actions (for example: help farmers join networks, match mentors and mentees, train network leaders, keep lists of supporting groups, or give subawards). If helping non-English speakers, providers should try to give help in the person’s native language. Providers must report annually on the conservation activities and any subawards. Subawards can be given to nonprofits, farmer networks, tribes, local governments, institutions of higher education, individuals, or others the Secretary allows. Subawards must be used to plan and run events or activities that build network capacity and to compensate participants at market rates. The Secretary must report to congressional agriculture committees within 4 years about funding awarded and results, including conservation practice adoption outcomes if feasible. The bill says the Secretary should use as much funding as needed from the NRCS conservation operations annual appropriations to carry out this program.
The bill says the Secretary shall use "such sums as are necessary" from annual appropriations for Natural Resources Conservation Service conservation operations to run the program. No specific dollar amounts or cost estimates are included in the bill text. No publicly available information on total program cost or budget impacts is provided in the bill text.
The bill’s stated purposes are to build capacity for farmer-to-farmer networks; connect farmers with mentors and group learning; support long-term adoption of consistent, science-based, site-specific conservation practices on working agricultural and forestry lands; increase technical assistance that is accessible to different farming models and scales; steward networks; and require reporting on activities.
No publicly available information.