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AFBF president says young, beginning farmers need more support

The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation says he’s concerned about a rising number of barriers impacting young and beginning farmers.

“They can come out of college, go to work in and around agriculture off the farm, and make a lot more money than they could farming right now. It shouldn’t be that way,” Zippy Duvall said.

Duvall says the availability of credit needs to be improved. “We need to make sure the risk management tools are set at the right levels that gives them opportunities to do the risk management piece in their businesses.”

Speaking to Brownfield at the recent 2024 Iowa Farm Bureau meeting, he said access to farmland is another concern. “Having to compete with not only growth in our communities in development, but compete against some of the government programs whether it be solar or renewable energy or some of those programs that are paying out.”

He says labor is also impacting beginning farmers, and suggests it’s the biggest limiting factor across the U.S. ag industry as a whole.

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