Farm Services
The Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency was created in 1994 in order to help stabilize farm income, help farmers conserve land and water resources, provide credit to new or disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and help farm operations recover from the effects of disaster. FSA incorporated programs from several agencies, including the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, and the Farmers Home Administration. Though its name has changed over the years, the Agency's relationship with farmers goes back to the 1930s.
Congress set up FSA to be a unique system under which Federal farm programs are administered locally. Farmers who are eligible to participate in these programs elect a three- to five-person county committee, which reviews county office operations and makes decisions on how to apply the programs. This grassroots approach gives farmers a much-needed say in how Federal actions affect their communities and their individual operations.
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