The US Agriculture Department said it dropped a plan to close 30 percent of its local offices that run the US farm program on Wednesday, less than a month after the much-criticised plan was made public.
In letters to the chairmen of the House and Senate Agriculture committees, USDA Under-secretary J.B. Penn announced "we have set aside this effort" to shutter Farm Service Agency offices in many rural locations.
The local offices, which process USDA crop loans, also offer advice to farmers on various issues and have long been an important part of rural communities.
Penn said USDA hoped Congress would agree in the next couple of years how to modernise the so-called county offices.
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