THE USDA recently announced a set of grants targeting a new generation of farm equipment users. The Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Maerrigan recently released the grant information aat a meeting in Longmont Colorado. According to Mergian, the funds will be used as a part of the “Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program,” an educational training, and assistance program that was generated after the passage of the 2008 farm bill.
Merrigan also noted that new farmers in the industry often face a number of difficulties, and the program is intended to help them surpass these obstacles in order to create a more successful agricultural industry. This is particularly important considering the average age of a farmer in the United States is 57 and has been continued to rise in previous years. As a result the USDA is doing what it can to recruit new young farmers to take up the reins as older farms retire.

So far the program has awarded $18 million in funding this year, with the next 2 fiscal periods seeing a similar amount of funding. This should help combat the trend that young people living in rural areas often leave to find economic opportunities in nearby cities instead, leaving the farming population to continue to rise in age.