Technical assistance program provides benefits for local agricultural producers

While the potential for financial assistance is often the major attraction of the US Department of Agriculture's Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, in the end, it is the technical training elements that provide the greatest overall benefits. In the current cycle, intensive technical assistance will be offered for the first time, taking the benefit to an entirely new level.

But the first step for producers is to file a petition. Producers of raw agricultural and certain seafood commodities impacted by foreign imports of competing products only have until Jan. 31 to petition the USDA if they hope to take advantage of the technical training benefits and even potentially qualify for financial assistance.

"Filing a petition, available through the USDA Web site, is a relatively simple process," says USDA's trade adjustment assistance coordinator, Jean-Louis Pajot. "Fax and e-mail are recommended as the ideal delivery methods to ensure a prompt response and the paperwork must be filed and submitted to our Washington, D.C. office no later than Jan.31, 2006."

The petition form is available online at www.fas.usda.gov/-itp/taa/FAS0930.pdf. It may also be requested by phone at (202) 720-2916 or by e-mail at trade.adjustment@fas.usda.gov.

Completed petitions may be faxed to (202) 720-0876. The Trade Act of 1974, as amended by the Trade Act of 2002, established the $90.0 million a year Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers program for fiscal years 2003 through 2007.

"The technical training benefits available through TAA are designed to help producers and fishermen improve productivity and explore additional commodities, marketing opportunities, and alternative enterprises," Pajot said. "All eligible producers receive technical training and may receive cash benefits up to $10,000, depending on the amount of production marketed and if they meet certain income criteria."

"While the financial aid is indeed appealing, not everybody obtains such relief. Anyone who can show that they produced and harvested a commodity that was approved for inclusion in the TAA Program qualifies for Technical Assistance," says Mark Bailey, national program leader, Economic and Community Systems Unit of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, the office responsible for creating and providing technical assistance.

"Technical Assistance is providing farmers and fisherman with alternative planning scenarios and implementation programs to enhance profitability," he says. "This could include financial plans, quality improvement plans, marketing plans (strategic as well as tactical) … really the entire gamut of agricultural risk management and mitigation tools."

Technical assistance, Bailey explains, is provided by the Extension Service, and funded by the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers program. Once a commodity is approved, and the Foreign Agricultural Service has notified Extension, CSREES has 45 days to develop a curriculum which must, by law, cover three elements: improved production efficiency alternative marketing opportunities diversification within enterprises and alternative enterprises.

Phase I Technical Assistance provides a basic, generic outline (commodity-specific), which is presented to producers that successfully petition for TAA, in a workshop format.

The program is developed through Extension's four Regional Risk Management Education Centers and the Digital Center for Risk Management Education at the University of Minnesota, which maintains all technical assistance materials prepared for the TAA program on the center's Web site.

"TAA in general offers three benefits -- technical assistance, cash and access to Department of Labor retraining benefits," explains Kevin Klair, Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities).

"In the long-term, technical assistance is what will really help -- that's the key for producers. Labor provides them with an exit strategy from farming, if that's what they really want; but Technical Assistance will help them decide if they can stay in business and thrive, despite competition from imports."

Klair, who runs the Digital Center for Risk Management Education at UMN, added, "Technical assistance is first a two-to-three hour workshop, where they cover fairly quickly the nature of the situation, elements that brought us to this point, and the overall world outlook for the commodity.

"The idea was developed to help producers and fishermen react to import pressures on a more specific level. A lot of them want help, but we can't really give them individual assistance within a two-to-three hour workshop to make a real difference."

"Intensive technical assistance is an optional program of which eligible TAA applicants can take advantage -- with direction from an extension service educator or consultant, with information that is specific and individualized to the specific conditions and situations of a farming or fish harvesting enterprise. The assistance runs the full gamut of specific elements the producer or expert might consider to help them improve profitability and survive in the face of import competition."

Steve Richards, a senior extension associate with Cornell University's School of Agriculture Department of Applied Economics and Management, said they have already developed business plans for some Concord grape farmers in New York State, utilizing Intensive technical assistance.

"The value of ITA is that it provides a chance for an independent third party to come in and evaluate your business and help you move on some of those items you've had on the back burner for awhile," Richards says. "Farmers are so busy, but we can help them implement plans, from basic business planning to joint ventures and partnerships, farm transfers, retirement, etc. We can bring in a lot of other resources that are otherwise not available without ITA funds. So they are really getting the individual support and advice they need. I really like ITA, I think it's a great idea."