INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.  — Twenty-three county Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices in the Farm World readership area have been approved for closure, part of a cost-cutting measure by the USDA, their parent agency.

Closures include Lake, Morgan and St. Joseph counties in Indiana; Bullitt, Green, Jackson, Lee and Whitley counties in Kentucky; Kalamazoo County in Michigan; Carroll, Clark, Meigs, Montgomery and Perry counties in Ohio; and Anderson, Bedford, Bledsoe, Cannon, Carter, Cocke, Humphreys, Sevier and Trousdale counties in Tennessee.

The closure process will begin immediately. After the required notifications have been provided to farmers, FSA employees and office landlords, closure dates will be established and made publicly available. Julia Wickard, Indiana FSA executive director, made the announcement May 30 that USDA Secretary Thomas A. Vilsack approved the closures.

“Customer service for our producers along with employment security for our staff remains the top priorities during this consolidation process,” said Wickard.

The agency will provide farmers affected by closures an opportunity to choose the most convenient neighboring county office at which to conduct their future business with the agency. In addition, all employees in a closing office will be provided an opportunity to continue their work with the FSA.

As a federal agency, FSA has been affected by widespread budget reductions made by Congress. Since 2011, the agency has lost 1,230 permanent employees through voluntary early separation and normal retirement. In addition, FSA has been forced to reduce discretionary administrative expenses by more than 30 percent in the current fiscal year alone.

The USDA followed statutory requirements provided by Congress in the 2008 farm bill for FSA office consolidations. Two sets of criteria were used to identify FSA offices for consolidation.

First, USDA identified FSA offices located fewer than 20 miles from another FSA office that had two or fewer permanent, full-time employees. Additionally, the proposal included all FSA offices with zero permanent employees regardless of location.

Public meetings were held within 30 days of the original announcement in every county affected by the proposal. Concerns raised by agricultural producers in Morgan County, Ind., were typical of other counties and included:

•Logistics surrounding the consolidated office location, including parking space to accommodate large farm vehicles

•Consolidated office not located in the most farmer-saturated county, making travel distance farther for most farmers

•Lease higher on new location and office not as nice

Comments gathered during this period were reviewed by the USDA prior to formally notifying Congress of the proposal on Feb. 27.
During the following 90-day Congressional notification period, the department reviewed data used to create the proposal and public comments received during this period.

During this review, the USDA determined that six of the original 131 proposed offices did not meet the 2008 farm bill criteria for consolidation. As a result, they are not included in the final plan. The six proposed county offices that will continue operating are: Lafayette County, Ark.; Boulder County, Colo.; St. Mary Parish, La.; Pamlico County, N.C.; Mayes County, Okla.; and York County, S.C.

FSA stated it is striving to balance budget reductions, staff reductions and increasing workloads while focusing the efforts of agency staff on continuing to provide high-quality service from the remaining 2,119 office locations. The agency’s stated goal is to strengthen service, notwithstanding reduced budgets and fewer workers.

For a complete list of FSA county offices affected by this decision nationally, go to www.fsa.usda.gov/office con

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