NASDA

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) represents the agricultural leaders of all 50 states and four U.S. territories, providing a unified voice for American agriculture. Since 1916, NASDA has been at the forefront of addressing the nation’s most pressing agricultural issues through policy development, strategic partnerships, and public engagement. By bridging state and federal agricultural policies, NASDA ensures that the diverse needs of American farmers and rural communities are represented and supported on both national and global stages.

NASDA

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4350 Fairfax Dr
Arlington, VA 22203
(202) 296-9680

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GAP Initiative : Welcome to the chat with our GAP Initiative Partner2024-09-27 08:50:29

2024 Partner Story: Targeting Trade Barriers in Indonesia with Communication and Innovation

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture’s (NASDA) mission is to enhance American food and agricultural communities through policy, partnerships and public engagement. NASDA works continuously to fulfill this mission by fostering trust and relationships across the global agriculture marketplace. NASDA’s trade missions to emerging markets showcase the intrinsic, long-term value of relationship-building and open dialogue, which sets the stage for innovation. This process for creating a nonpartisan forum of exchange is a core competency of NASDA, and innovation – indeed, streamlining or bundling innovation – always results when NASDA members connect with a challenge. 

In 2022, NASDA was awarded $925,000 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service Emerging Markets Program. The Emerging Markets Program helps organizations promote exports of U.S. agricultural products to developing countries with strong growth potential. Through this program, NASDA led members and industry experts on trade missions to four countries in 2023, including Indonesia in August 2023. The U.S. delegation to Indonesia included NASDA President and Oklahoma Agriculture Secretary Blayne Arthur, Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward, New Mexico Agriculture Secretary Jeff Witte, Massachusetts Agriculture Commissioner Ashley Randle, California Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, NASDA CEO Ted McKinney and U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) President & CEO Krysta Harden. 

The NASDA delegation met with government and private sector leaders in the agriculture industry to discuss critical topics including animal care standards, expediting dairy facility registration and the strong desire of Indonesians to do business with the U.S. One action item from these meetings focused on how Indonesia’s Halal certification program would require the U.S. dairy industry to re-certify more than 120 dairy processors that currently export to Indonesia by October 2024. These dairy processors currently account for 15 percent of dairy products available to Indonesians. Addressing this major barrier while preparing the U.S. dairy industry to grow market share in Indonesia will reduce inefficiencies and food waste and create a forum for knowledge sharing that may lead to improving other aspects of dairy production for both countries. Additionally, it was expressed that Indonesian agricultural businesses and farmers desired technical support from the U.S.  

Upon returning home, Secretary Witte and Harden organized a technical working group that created a channel for information sharing, technical assistance and trainings for the U.S.-Indonesian dairy industries. In January 2024, the technical working group traveled to Indonesia to accomplish two key tasks: 1) meet with Indonesian officials and organizations to socialize their work and connect it to advancing the incoming administration’s Milk Pledge to provide school milk for all school children in Indonesia; and 2) expand upon the technical education curriculum for Indonesian dairy farmers. From these meetings, the technical working group decided on four modules: farm management, nutrition, increasing quality and yields, and animal health. This group also identified three Indonesian partners to vet and disseminate these modules once complete. The final product will be a series of short videos with standardized trainings that Indonesian farmers can access on their cell phones. Additionally, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection joined the partnership to lend expertise on genetics, and Northern Illinois University Professor Dr. Eric Jones also joined the initiative to support the transition with the new incoming Indonesian administration.   

NASDA fosters partnerships that span state, federal, and private entities to reduce knowledge loss from election cycles, establish realistic goals and timelines, and integrate solutions that reflect the diversity of our producers and consumers. The growing effort that resulted from our meetings in Indonesia reflects a collaborative, multi-state effort that continues to provide an open exchange network, advancing the bottom line for agricultural producers in both the U.S. and Indonesia. By addressing trade barriers, fostering open dialogue and forming partnerships like this example, NASDA is bundling innovation to pave the way for a more sustainable and productive agriculture industry worldwide. 

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