Technology

The United States Department of Agriculture Digital Service (USDA DS) is a program designed to cultivate and grow a community of multidisciplinary teams to create human-centered solutions that deliver simple, seamless, and secure technology and customer experiences across USDA. USDA DS seeks to attract diverse, talented senior technologists, and strategists to further the wide-ranging missions of USDA mission areas, agencies, and staff offices.

USDA partnered for the first time with Women in Data for the non-governmental organization’s just-concluded Climate Sustainability Datathon, which is a friendly contest for people who really like to work with data.

Accurate crop mapping is a crucial process to informing reliable crop production estimates, addressing climate change, and developing strategies for sustainable agriculture.

There are many different approaches and practices when it comes to farming, but one thing is constant - to run your farm as a business, you need to be able to sell your product. To sell their product, a farmer or rancher needs to be visible to buyers and buyers need to have an easy way to reach producers.

McClellanville County is a rural community in South Carolina, and like many communities across rural America, access to high-speed internet presents real barriers. Families like Lindsay’s struggled to stay connected in the digital age. “When the kids came home from school and I was working, no one could get on,” said Lindsay. “Everyone had to stop and wait until I was done, and the kids would have to wait to do their homework.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is driven to lead the way in customer-centered, data-driven service delivery across the Federal Government. It is our goal to accelerate the use of modern technology and digital tools that our internal and external customers expect in every aspect of their lives. We have made significant strides in advancing technology capabilities, including establishing the Office of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) and the Office of Customer Experience (OCX). The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) through the IT Modernization initiative, has made major progress in modernizing our information technology (IT) infrastructure to what it is today.

In today’s world, keeping up with the latest news and research can feel like a full-time job. Fortunately, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has launched a new Charts of Note Mobile App designed to deliver digital snapshots of research straight to your mobile device.

As a fifth-generation farmer, I know how important it is to have access to reliable market data and how little time producers have to search for this information. Thanks to the new USDA Market News Mobile App, accessing this information just got easier.

With the global population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, farmers need all the help they can get to increase production, quality, and nutritional value of agricultural products. FarmBeats will help them achieve that.

Good customer experience starts at the very first interaction with a customer, which is why the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently officially launched its AskUSDA Contact Center program to support inquiries via web, phone, chat, or email. AskUSDA serves as the one “front door” to help deliver a centralized contact center experience, helping customers get consistent and streamlined information.