(KLZA)-- The U.S. Department of Agriculture  will begin mailing ballots this week for the Farm Service Agency county and urban county committee elections to all eligible agricultural producers and private landowners across the country.

Elections are occurring in certain Local Administrative Areas for these committee members who make important decisions about how Federal farm programs are administered locally. Producers and landowners must return ballots to their local FSA county office or have their ballots postmarked by Dec. 4, 2023, for those ballots to be counted.

Producers must participate or cooperate in an FSA program to be eligible to vote in the county committee election. A cooperating producer is someone who has provided information about their farming or ranching operation to FSA, even if they have not applied or received program benefits. Additionally, producers who are not of legal voting age, but supervise and conduct farming operations for an entire farm, are eligible to vote in these elections.  

  For purposes of FSA county committee elections, every member of an American Indian Tribe is considered an agricultural landowner if the land on which the tribal member- voting eligibility is based is tribally owned or held in trust by the U.S. for the Tribe, even if the individual does not personally produce a crop on that land. Tribal agricultural landowners 18 years and older can contact their local FSA county office to register to vote.

Visit fsa.usda.gov/elections, for more information on county committee elections.