The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Feb. 26 its “One Farmer, One File,” sweeping modernization initiative to create a centralized record system for farmers.
The USDA said that the streamlined system will unify systems currently siloed across its Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Risk Management Agency.
Those agencies provide farmers with a range of services from establishing a farm number to reporting acres planted and getting capital to help with recovering from disasters.
The initiative will retire legacy systems and will likely be completed in 2028, according to the USDA. The agency said it began work on the system in 2025 and will “greatly advance the effort in 2026.”
The USDA said the “effort will make program delivery more efficient, save time for USDA staff, and decrease spending on disparate information technology systems.”
“Our government for the people by the people should be modern, efficient, and respect taxpayer dollars,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement. “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.”
“‘One Farmer, One File’ prevents our farmers from duplicating tasks while … [increasing] their productivity and time in the field,” Rollins added.
The USDA has been undergoing numerous recent modernization efforts. Those include using Login.gov to expedite Farmer Bridge Assistance payments and streamlining its conservation programs to make it easier for farmers to bundle and apply for the practices needed on their farms.