At the Commodity Classic Convention in San Antonio, Texas, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the “One Farmer, One File” modernization. It aims to create a single, streamlined record that follows the farmer, no matter where they go in the USDA system.
“This modernization of old, duplicative, wasteful systems has one goal in mind, improve our customer service so the people we serve are able to farm and feed America and the world,” Rollins said. “One Farmer, One File’ prevents our farmers from duplicating tasks while increasing their productivity and time in the field.”
USDA’s Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Risk Management Agency work with agricultural producers on a wide range of programs and services, from establishing a farm number to reporting acres planted, and from getting capital to recovering from disasters.
The goal of “One Farmer, One File” is to reduce the administrative burden for farmers. Additionally, this effort will make program delivery more efficient, save time for USDA staff, and decrease spending on disparate information technology systems.
This uniform system will retire legacy systems and remove agency silos. USDA began work on this system in 2025 and plans to greatly advance the effort in 2026. USDA anticipates completing the project in 2028.
“Farmers rely on USDA’s support and technical assistance more than ever, but we also know firsthand how time-consuming paperwork and duplicative reporting requirements can be,” says ASA Vice President and Iowa farmer Dave Walton. “The efficiencies implemented through this initiative will help reduce that burden and save precious time that can be spent in the field.”
