Former Head Of FSA Supporting Parts Of USDA Reorganization

(DTN) -- The former head of the Farm Service Agency under the Obama administration is among those supporting at least parts of the USDA reorganization plan rolled out this week by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Val Dolcini, who led FSA from 2015 until leaving last January, told DTN that farmers, ranchers and landowners would benefit from the Trump administration's plan to bring under one umbrella the FSA, the Natural Resources Conservation Services and the Risk Management Agency. "This is an opportunity really to better serve USDA's customers," Dolcini said. "Having these agencies together under the same undersecretary would remove some of the territoriality that goes on in government." Under the reorganization plan rolled out Thursday, those three agencies -- FSA, NRCS and RMA -- would all be under one "undersecretary for farm production and conservation." Dolcini noted that position would become one of the most influential and powerful undersecretary positions in the federal government, overseeing more than 2,200 USDA offices nationally and roughly 25,000 or so employees. "That's going to be a key position that will have a lot of influence," he said. Traditionally, the Natural Resources Conservation Service has been its own independent agency. So putting its programs under a new umbrella with the other farm programs left some conservation groups a little subdued in their support for the plan. "As one of USDA's core partners, NACD's primary goal is to ensure that American landowners are given the tools and technical assistance they need to conserve and enhance our nation's natural resources," said Brent Van Dyke, president of National Association of Conservation Districts. "For this reason, we were glad to hear Secretary Perdue say that no reduction in the workforce will occur as a result of the reorganization." The farm operations reorganization was just part of the plan rolled out by USDA on Thursday. The key element was the official creation of the undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs. That position, created in the 2014 farm bill, will oversee the Foreign Agricultural Service and shift its focus more on exporting U.S. products and working with the U.S. Trade Representative's Office. Farm groups largely praised USDA on Thursday for creating the trade undersecretary position, but they remained cautious about other aspects of the USDA plan.