CARY, N.C. – SAS is helping the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) protect the food supply of all Americans and provide important agricultural and human services, according to the analytics firm on Tuesday.

A new enterprise-wide contract, covering SAS® Analytics software, services and training over the next five years, extends a 36-year partnership between SAS and the USDA.

USDA has used SAS software since the company’s inception in 1976, initially for agricultural research. Today, SAS is used extensively in 15 USDA agencies, several USDA offices and across all mission areas, including research, forestry and conservation, food safety and nutrition, farm services, marketing programs, and rural development.

“With increasing threats to the food supply and threats to animals, plants and humans as well as droughts and natural disasters, USDA’s challenges are increasingly complex,” said Karen Terrell, vice president of SAS’ federal division. “This agreement underscores the importance of SAS Analytics to help USDA address priorities such as agricultural production, energy, conservation, and food safety.”

Last year SAS was awarded a large contract to support Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) workforce planning initiatives. USDA also uses SAS in large programs such as Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE), National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) and Public Health Information System (PHIS).

SAS Analytics also supports USDA core economic functions – such as county loan and crop insurance rate setting, bank health analysis, agricultural census and crop reporting.

Consolidating more than 50 separate SAS contracts, this enterprise contract supports easier cross-agency sharing of SAS technology and represents a potential value of $12.3 million if all option years are exercised.

For more than three decades, SAS has provided served the analytic needs of the federal government.

All 15 U.S. federal departments and 80 national governments worldwide use SAS software’s analytic and predictive capabilities for critical initiatives such as performance management, budgeting, logistics, cyberdefense, combating fraud and improper payments, and threat assessment.