(Photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
YANKTON, S.D. (WNAX) — President Joe Biden has come out with his proposed fiscal year 2022 budget and it includes a close to $4 billion increase for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The funding proposal is directed toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making farms more resilient to climate change. South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke said he hopes it will be adopted by Congress, saying it gives incentives to producers to be environmentally responsible.
“We’ve got to incentivize those people to do the best for their soil and help them do it,” Sombke said. “It incentivizes the right people to do the right thing.”
Biden’s budget proposal also calls for an increase of about 20 percent or over $640 million in ag research. Sombke says that’s something his group has been looking for for some time.
“We haven’t invested enough in research over the years,” Sombke said. “If we’re going to continue to be the top-producing nation worldwide we’re going to need to continue to do better research.”
The president’s fiscal year 2022 budget request also includes an increase of $11.2 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency.
(Jerry Oster, WNAX, contributed this report.)
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