On Monday, April 18, Governor Asa Hutchinson announced the release of the Arkansas State Broadband Plan, which was authorized and funded by the legislature to provide a comprehensive review and update of current broadband infrastructure and capacity. The
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Betsy Ward, the Chief Executive Officer of USA Rice, recently conducted an interview with Agri-Pulse to discuss various topics related to the U.S. rice industry. She spoke of ongoing challenges facing rice farmers this year, particularly high input prices
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On Friday, April 8th, USDA released an updated World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report. The monthly report provides annual forecasts for supply and use of U.S. and world wheat, rice, coarse grains, oilseeds, cotton, and other major a
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On Tuesday, April 5th, a group of nearly 100 republican House members sent a letter to President Biden urging action towards lowering the cost of fertilizer for American farmers. The letter offered some specific recommendations, including utilization of e
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The Arkansas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation (ABWEF) board of directors recently voted to provide a cash rebate of $.75 per acre to Arkansas cotton farmers for cotton acreage reported in 2021 under Arkansas’s boll weevil eradication program. A total of
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The Ag Economy Barometer, maintained by Purdue University and the CME Group, showed a significant decline in farmer optimism in its March report due to rapidly increasing input costs and market uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine and other ongoing marke
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The Little Rock District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently announced that it was investing $92.6 million towards improving navigation along the Arkansas River by working to deepen sections of the river to meet its goal of providing a 12-foot ch
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On Monday, April 4th, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) issued an updated Crop Progress Report. The latest report indicated Arkansas lagging its five year average largely due to soil moisture issues. The report showed Arkansas farmers w
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On Tuesday, April 5th, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee held another farm bill hearing with the focus this time on the energy title. The hearing focused on rural energy and the role of agriculture and rural communities in developing and providing ener
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The Ag Council of Arkansas will hold its next board of directors meeting May 10th in Helena at the Beth El Heritage Hall. The meeting will feature a range of guest speakers who will cover various topics of current interest. Included in the list of speaker
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On March 30th and 31st, the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee hosted hearings that featured U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai who presented the Biden Trade Policy Agenda for 2022. The meetings included discussion on China a
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The Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board recently announced that Robert Petter of De Valls Bluff was appointed by the USDA to serve on the United Soybean Board (USB). Petter will represent Arkansas during a three-year term as a newly appointed farmer-leader o
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