USDA Update

By Rod Johnson

May 28, 2004

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Two important contributions you are very familiar with have been made to America Agriculture by Asian Pacific Americans; development of the Bing cherry and the Florida Orange. A Chinese horticulturist working in Oregon, Ah Bing, bred the red, sweet cherry that is now an American favorite, while in Florida Lue Gim Gong experimented with oranges, perfecting a variety that was resistant to frost and able to grow in Florida. Think of these the next time you have cherry pie or drink that glass of orange juice with your bacon and eggs for breakfast.

The FSA & NRCS Offices will be closed Monday, May 31 in observance of the Memorial Day Holiday. Offices will reopen on Tuesday, June 1.

The Conservation Security Program will be available in 18 watersheds across the nation for 2004 in the first sign-up for this new program which is designed to reward good land stewardship. None of these watersheds are in Colorado. The combined total area of these 18 watersheds is just over 14 million acres (for reference, Kiowa County is 1.1 million acres). NRCS chose to roll out this new program only in these selected watersheds due to the limited funding available this year ($41.4 million) and to hold down the administration costs, which are limited to no more than 15% of the funds expended. Administration costs of a nationwide sign-up can be excessive. The watersheds were selected based on several criteria including a wide variety of land uses, high priority resource issues to be addressed, a history of good land stewardship, and availability of technical tools such as digitized field and soils information to expedite program implementation. The CSP should be available in other watersheds in future years based on available funding.

Foreign investors with an interest in agricultural lands in the United States are required to report their holdings and any transactions to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Any foreign person who acquires, makes a change of land use or transfers any interest, other than a security interest, in agricultural land in the United States is required by law to report the transaction no later than 90 days after the date of the transaction.

Foreign investors must file Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) Reports with the Farm Service Agency county office in which the land is located. Failure to file a report, filing a late report or filing an inaccurate report can result in a penalty with fines up to 25 percent of the fair market value of the agricultural land. For AFIDA purposes, agricultural land is defined as any land used for farming, ranching or timber production, if the tracts total 10 acres or more.

Sullivan, Inc., P.O. Box703, Ulysses, KS 67880 operating under warehouse code 8-4459 and UGRSA Agreement No. AG20-3-CCC-0695, has deleted the storage capacity at Granada, CO and is no longer licensed. Granada, CO has been removed as a merged location from Ulysses, KS and CCC-Code No. 8-4459.