Farm Bill: Precision Agriculture Deserves Prompt Policy

By AgUpdate

The farm bill is important to bringing connectivity to rural areas, writes American Farm Bureau Federation’s Bernt Nelson at AgUpdate. Farmers need connectivity to use precision-agriculture technologies.

About 20 percent of U.S. farms lacked access to broadband internet in 2021, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Title VI of the farm bill authorizes rural-development programs that help provide broadband access to unserved and underserved areas across the United States.

Lawmakers highlighted the importance of precision agriculture in the 2018 Farm Bill by including the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018. The legislation created a task force to focus on the connectivity and technology needs of precision agriculture. The task force established working groups charged with researching and developing recommendations to address current challenges in connectivity.

Introduced July 26, 2023, the Linking Access to Spur Technology for Agriculture Connectivity in Rural Environments Act (S. 2542) would establish a new USDA Rural Development competitive-grant and loan broadband program. It would be dedicated to extending connectivity to farms and ranches. It also would allow eligible farmers and ranchers to work with internet providers to submit bid applications for projects.