Farmers are still being urged to complete the Census of Agriculture surveys. Although Feb. 5 was the deadline, a USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service representative said the Ag Census website https://www.agcounts.usda.gov/cawi was strained due to heavy traffic on Monday so it will be accepting census survey responses the rest of the week. She said farmers can get extensions to March 27 by calling 800-727-9540. They'll also be contacting people who haven't responded.
As of Feb. 2, only 26 percent of California farmers had responded.
“Not only is the information collected extremely useful for various research efforts, being able to show the full scale and reach of California agriculture is vital for our policy efforts and to help increase public investment in the farm sector,” said VP Glenda Humiston.
According to a NASS news release, "The Census is the only source of uniform, comprehensive, and impartial agriculture data for every state and county in the nation. Producers are required by law to respond; NASS is required by the same federal law to keep all information confidential, use the data only for statistical purposes, and only publish in aggregate form to prevent disclosing the identity of any individual producer or farm operation."
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