FSA to Consider Eliminating District Committees

Farm Service Agency Administrator Zach Ducheneaux recently told lawmakers that he’ll give serious consideration to the recommendation to replace the FSA’s district committee system.  IndustryUpdate.com says the USDA’s Equities Commission recently made the recommendation.

However, Ducheneaux said the district committee system is an opportunity for producers to be an important part of the process, but it’s also important for those committees to be representatives of those who produce.  The administrator said the district committees evaluate regional prices and determine producers’ rights, but they don’t have the right to influence the loan approval process.

"We’ve been involved at every opportunity with members of the Equity Commission,” he says. “But we have to understand that we’re working to overcome the decades and generations when it was members of the county commissions that considered the loan applications.”

Former FSA officials also said the county committees are important to the FSA’s mission.

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