Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the National Association of Conservation District's South Central Region meeting in Oklahoma. There, I met many of the partners who help put conservation on the ground here in Louisiana. Helping Louisiana landowners with their resource concerns and keeping their food and fiber operations economically viable is a big job.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that registration is now open for the 101st Agricultural Outlook Forum. The event, titled “Meeting Tomorrow’s Challenges, Today,” will be held at the Crystal City Gateway Marriott on February 27-28, 2025. Additionally, all Forum sessions will be livestreamed on a virtual platform.

The Forum program will feature a presentation on the 2025 outlook for the U.S. agricultural economy and trade by USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer.

There were 212,714 farms with 53.1 million irrigated acres, which included 81 million acre-feet of water applied in the United States, according to the 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey results, published today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). In 2018, the irrigation survey results showed that there were 231,474 farms with 55.9 million irrigated acres, which included 83.4 million acre-feet of water. The results show that the number of farms irrigating, the amount of land irrigated, and the total water used for irrigation decreased between 2018 and 2023.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a historic $1.5 billion for 92 partner-driven conservation projects through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), a partner-driven approach to conservation that funds solutions to natural resource challenges on agricultural land. Partners will provide $968 million in contributions to amplify the impact of the federal investment. Louisiana Projects include the AR-LA CDN Open Pine Landscape Restoration #2, to receive $21,250,000 in funding, and the RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements (AFA) for Federal Fiscal Year 2024, to receive $17,000,000 in funding. Selected RCPP projects, including those in Louisiana will help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners adopt and expand voluntary, locally led conservation strategies to enhance natural resources while tackling the climate crisis.  

On October 28, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will mail the Cost of Pollination Inquiry – November 2024 to nearly 16,000 producers nationwide, including 80 Louisiana crop producers. The survey results will help producers and beekeepers monitor and react to changes in production costs. Pollination expenditures are a necessary part of agriculture and are directly tied to the health of the honey bee industry. 

Notice of a major Disaster Declaration for the State of Louisiana is hereby amended to include the following areas among those areas determined to have been adversely affected by the event declared a major disaster by the President in his declaration of September 16, 2024.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced additional assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help producers impacted by Hurricane Helene in the recovery process. USDA is announcing the counties that have triggered for payment under the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index (HIP-WI) endorsement for Hurricane Helene. As a result, Approved Insurance Providers (AIP) have 30 days to issue payments to producers, but AIPs typically issue payments much sooner.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small today announced a more than $46 million investment in projects supporting America’s veteran, underserved, and beginning farmers and ranchers to help aspiring producers enter the business and improve their skills and knowledge to sustain their operations for years to come.

The notice of a major disaster declaration for the State of Texas is hereby amended to include permanent work under the Public Assistance program for the following areas among those areas determined to have been adversely affected by the event declared a major disaster by the President in his declaration of July 9, 2024.