800 326 9054Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins today unveiled a plan to modernize USDA’s agricultural data collection at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.
“America’s farmers and ranchers are the backbone of our food and agricultural system, and USDA should respect their time while delivering the reliable information they need,” Rollins said.
The “USDA Data Modernization Plan to Put Farmers First” is designed to “reduce unnecessary burdens on producers, and improve the timeliness, accuracy, and usefulness of the agricultural data that informs decisions across American agriculture,” the agency said.
The plan comes as USDA seeks to update how it collects, analyzes and shares agricultural information more than 160 years after the department was established.
“While American agriculture and USDA look vastly different than they did in 1862, the need for timely, accurate, and useful agricultural statistics remains constant,” said Kip Tom, special adviser for data modernization. “This plan brings USDA agencies together, breaks down outdated information silos, and applies modern technology to provide producers and rural communities with better service. By improving how information is collected and shared, we can respond more quickly to challenges facing American agriculture.”
In an interview with Agri-Pulse in August, Tom, an Indiana farmer and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture, said the effort to modernize data collection at USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will initially focus on corn and soybeans. “We’ve got to move from the analog age into the digital era and make sure that NASS has the tools to deliver this information the way they need to,” Tom said.
USDA data is used to produce crop and livestock estimates and inform risk-management tools, disaster assistance and business decisions by farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, researchers and policymakers.
In February, Rollins issued a request for information seeking feedback on opportunities and challenges for the way USDA collects and uses data. Tom and other USDA leaders also participated in several data modernization listening sessions at state fairs and farm shows across the country in August.
USDA’s new plan is built around the following four pillars:
- Modernize the Data Reporting Experience: USDA said it will expand use of administrative data, improve mobile access to surveys, explore opportunities to use prefilled information where appropriate, and strengthen coordination across USDA. These changes are intended to reduce duplicative requests and limit the amount of time producers spend reporting information.
- Enhance Acreage and Yield Estimation: USDA said it will conduct a pilot to evaluate the use of improved satellite imagery, geospatial tools, crop models, and other emerging technologies combined with producer-reported information to enhance acreage and yield estimations. USDA will also assess the use of optional field inputs to enhance and ground-truth yield estimates and continue advancing yield research through collaboration with agricultural partners and land-grant universities.
- Integrate Data and Technology Platforms: USDA said it will modernize its technology infrastructure, expand secure data-sharing capabilities, and evaluate the responsible use of tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
- Expand Trust and Transparency with Producers: USDA said it will protect producer privacy, clearly explain why information is requested and how it is used, and create additional opportunities for producers to provide feedback. USDA said it will also improve communication surrounding reports, methodologies, response rates, and data limitations.
While USDA did not include a timeline for implementation, the agency said it would “continue working with outside partners to evaluate new data-collection methods and strengthen the scientific foundation of its agricultural statistics.”
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