USDA ANNOUNCES DATA MODERNIZATION PLAN

USDA recently released a new Data Modernization Plan focused on reducing paperwork, improving agricultural statistics, and making better use of information farmers already provide to the Department. The plan responds to a familiar problem for growers: USDA agencies often collect the same information through separate programs and systems that do not communicate with one another.

The plan focuses on four areas: improving the producer reporting experience, strengthening acreage and yield estimates, connecting USDA’s technology platforms, and rebuilding producer confidence in USDA data. USDA is considering shorter mobile-friendly surveys, prefilled forms, a more user-friendly online reporting portal, and greater use of records already held by the Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency, and Natural Resources Conservation Service.

USDA also plans to expand its use of satellite imagery, geospatial information, artificial intelligence, and other modeling tools to estimate acreage, yields, crop conditions, and disaster impacts. The Department will work with NASA, land-grant universities, and other partners to test these tools while continuing to use information reported directly by producers. Technology can improve the process, but USDA will still need growers to verify that its estimates match actual conditions in the field.

This effort ties directly into USDA’s recently announced One Farmer, One File initiative. The goal is to create one producer record that can be used across FSA, NRCS, and RMA. Instead of entering the same acreage, farm-number, ownership, and operational information every time a grower applies for a different USDA program, that information would follow the producer throughout the Department. USDA began developing the system in 2025 and expects to complete it in 2028.

One Farmer, One File is essentially the foundation for USDA’s larger modernization effort. If USDA agencies can securely share information, the Department can reduce duplicate paperwork, prefill surveys and applications, process assistance more efficiently, and improve the consistency of its agricultural data.

Better acreage, yield, and disaster information can influence markets, crop insurance, federal assistance, and agricultural policy decisions. Faster disaster assessments could also help USDA determine losses and deliver assistance sooner. Just as importantly, growers should not have to repeatedly provide information the federal government already has.

The success of the effort will ultimately depend on implementation. USDA must protect confidential farm information, maintain human oversight of artificial intelligence and satellite-based estimates, and give producers a meaningful opportunity to identify errors. The plan states that access to precision-agriculture information would be voluntary and that USDA will continue listening sessions, commodity discussions, and producer roundtables as modernization moves forward.