Governor seeks additional funding for several agriculture programs

If Gov. Tim Walz’s biennial budget recommendations for the Department of Agriculture are heeded, eight programs can expect additional funding.

The governor’s budget, presented Thursday to the House Agriculture and Food Finance and Policy Division, asks the Legislature to allocate nearly $111.13 million to the department from the General Fund. 

Add in funding for the Board of Animal Health and the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, and that total request edges up to around $131 million, according to nonpartisan House fiscal staff.

The 2020-21 budget recommendations include:

• an additional $250,000 per year to hire two full-time staff and provide programming funds for international and domestic marketing of agriculture products;
• a $225,000 per year increase to fund an additional rural mental health specialist and two additional Farm Advocate advisors, increasing Farm Advocate reimbursement by 2.5 percent to fund and promote a distressed farm and rural resident hotline, and increasing information and outreach coordination efforts relating to farm and rural mental health;
• a one-time appropriation of $325,000 to the Agricultural Emergency Account and increasing annual funding of the Agricultural Emergency Preparedness and Response program to $550,000 per year;
• increasing funding of the Noxious Weed program by $50,000 per year to $900,000;
• increasing the state’s portion of funding of the meat inspection program by $250,000 per year to approximately $2 million;
• increasing funding of the Industrial Hemp Development program by $100,000 per year to $300,000 to provide one additional staff person for certification, regulation and testing of growers;
• appropriating $250,000 per year to the Critical Core Capacity for Plant Pathogens and Pests program that received $1 million for the current biennium to increase staff and bolster program capacity; and
• a one-time appropriation of $2.14 million during the biennium to fund equipment replacement at the Agriculture Department laboratory.

Just over one-third of the agency budget is funded through fees, Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Andrea Vaubel  explained. The federal government supplies about 10 percent of the operating budget and the rest comes from the state.