Nationwide, farmers and rural residents describe struggling to obtain the basic services USDA is meant to offer, including loans and grants, technical assistance, and financing for housing and utilities due to “skeletal staffing”, reports The New York Times.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service, for example, has lost more than 2,700 workers, or nearly a fourth of its staff.
Progressive Farmer says while farmers in Polk County, Iowa, still have a Farm Service Agency office to visit, four out of five days that office will be closed.
Calls are rerouted, and employees from other counties come in to staff the office.
In a recent interview with DTN, Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden said NRCS has a map identifying staffing shortages and that the agency is working to even it out.
The agency said it plans to hire 272 NRCS employees this year, leaving it 346 short of its 9,500-employee goal, and below its 2020-25 average of 10,698, according to Progressive Farmer.
