Governor Lamont Announces Connecticut Receives Federal Agriculture Disaster Declaration Due To Recent Heavy Rains and Flooding

Sep 07, 2023

Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he has received notification from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack informing him that his request has been approved for Connecticut to receive a federal agriculture disaster declaration due to the heavy rainfall that occurred in early July and caused significant flood damage to farms and crops statewide.

This declaration means that farmers in all eight of Connecticut’s counties can apply for federal disaster assistance from the Farm Service Agency, such as emergency loans, to cover production losses they experienced as a result of the severe weather event, provided that certain eligibility requirements are met.

“This has been a tough year for Connecticut’s farmers with severe weather events causing significant crop damage and resulting in production losses that are financially impacting these small, locally owned businesses,” Governor Lamont said. “The approval of this federal agriculture disaster declaration means that farmers will have access to support so they can continue their incredibly valuable operations. I am very appreciative to Secretary Vilsack and the Biden administration for listening to our concerns and approving our request. I urge any Connecticut farmer who has been impacted by this summer’s flooding to reach out to the Farm Service Agency as soon as possible.”

“This season has been one of the most challenging in recent memory and I appreciate the USDA for approving Governor Lamont’s request,” Connecticut Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt said. “Farmers who have experienced losses may be eligible for additional USDA programs, with increased flexibilities, to help offset the losses. The Connecticut Department of Agriculture also offers any farmers the opportunity for one-on-one consultative services to help them find the right program for their farm. Interested farmers should contact the Connecticut Department of Agriculture at 860-713-2500 or agr.disaster@ct.gov. Additional resources are available online at portal.ct.gov/disaster to assist producers as they navigate the recovery process.”

Farmers will have eight months from the date of this disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans. The Farm Service Agency considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator. Farmers interested in applying for assistance must contact their local Farm Service Agency office.

This is the second agriculture disaster declaration that Secretary Vilsack has approved for Connecticut this year. In July, the secretary approved an agriculture disaster declaration for the state due to the impact of the abnormal, sub-freezing weather event that occurred in the early morning hours of May 18, 2023, which also caused significant crop losses.

Source : ct.gov

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”