NRCS 2005 Annual Report to the AAEA Economic Statistics and Information Resources Committee

Updated 10/09/2007

1. The primary source of NRCS data is still the local county Field Office Technical Guide. This is available from the state websites or nationally from http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/efotg/.
2. NRCS Economics & Analysis Site is available at http://economics.nrcs.usda.gov.
   This includes the AAEA Commodity Costs and Returns Estimation Handbook at http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/care/aaea/index.html.
   State economic resources are available at http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/care/budgets/index.html
   Please check that your university data is accurately represented there.
   The BUDGETS listserver at Budgets@listserv.vt.edu should be used for all crop and livestock budgeting news.
   The NRCS Economic Tools by Landuse site has many farm and resource economic tools, http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/tools/index.html.
3. The main NRCS Data Resources site is at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/dataresources/
   SSURGO county soil surveys has been superseded by a “Soils Mart: an improved version (covering over 2,000 counties) is available at http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/ The general NRCS soils information website is http://soils.usda.gov/.
4. The EconDoc Exchange (EconDocs), which can be used for on-line crop budgeting and cost estimating, can be found at: http://ssiapps.sc.egov.usda.gov/EconDocs/.  The newest feature, AnalysisDocs, can be used to carry out basic statistical and comparative analysis.
5. The Rules for all conservation programs from the 2002 Farm Bill are available from http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/farmbill/. The accompany Cost/Benefit Analysis, Environment Assessment, Civil Rights Impact Analysis, and Risk Assessments are also publicly available for each Rule for each Farm Bill Program. These 2002 Cost/Benefits Analyses should be a starting point for all 2007 program analyses by researchers.
6. Conservation Costs Lists for each state are available from Section I of each NRCS State Office website, and under specific program information for each site. A listing of cost lists for all counties is also found in http://www.programs.tx.nrcs.usda.gov/nationalcosts/.
   Additional resource analysis is available at the State of the Land site at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/.  This site includes information from the NRCS National Nutrient Loss Modeling Project running a version of EPIC on all cropland NRI points nationwide. This output is then used with the SWAT model in the Hydrological Unit Modeling of the United States (HUMUS) to forecast how changes in agricultural operations leads to on-site and off-site natural resource changes.
7. Results from the 2003 Annual NRI are at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/.
   The National Resources Inventory (NRI) is a statistical survey designed to help gauge natural resource status, conditions and trends on the Nation’s nonfederal land.
   The NRI was conducted every 5 years between 1977 and 1997, and is now in transition to a continuous/annual, inventory process. This shift helps align the NRI with the need for timely information to support agricultural and conservation policy development and the assessment of the impacts of policy choices and conservation program implementation.
   NRI data are gathered for a scientifically selected subset of the 800,000 sample sites that were established for previous NRIs. This sub-sample includes a set of “Core” sample sites, which are sampled each year, and “Rotation” (or “supplemental”) sample sites that vary by inventory year and allow an inventory to focus on an emerging issue. Additional on-site data gathering is conducted for items that cannot be determined remotely, to establish baseline conditions, and for quality assurance purposes.
   The 2003 Annual NRI shows a net gain of 263,000 wetland acres due to agriculture between 1997 and 2003.  The 2005 NRI Rangeland Field Study is in its third consecutive year, collecting on-site data related to soils, rangeland health, species distribution, and production, http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/nriResources/nri2005/.
8. Conservation Effects Assessment Project, Measuring the Benefits of Conservation, http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/ceap/. 
   USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service is partnering with Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Farm Service Agency (FSA) and other agencies to conduct a national assessment of environmental benefits and effects of 2002 Farm Bill programs. The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) will study the benefits of most conservation practices implemented through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, Conservation Reserve Program and NRCS Conservation Technical Assistance. This project will evaluate conservation practices and management systems related to nutrient, manure, and pest management, buffer systems, tillage, irrigation, and drainage practices, as well as wildlife habitat establishment, and wetland protection and restoration.
9. CEAP will provide the farming community, general public, legislators and others with a scientific accounting of environmental benefits achieved through conservation programs.
   Two Components of CEAP
       The national assessment provides estimates of conservation benefits at the national scale for annual reporting. The national assessment is being conducted using the National Resources Inventory (NRI) as the sampling base for estimating the environmental benefits of conservation practices. NASS is administering farmer surveys relative to cropland fields containing NRI sample points and gathering information regarding farm-field level land management and data on conservation practices for these fields. FSA and NRCS are gathering information on applications of conservation practices and program participation. This information will be used in physical process models to estimate the loss of materials from farm fields, accumulation of soil carbon, and water quality benefits.
       The watershed studies provide more detailed assessments in several selected watersheds, provide a framework for evaluating and improving the performance of the national assessment models, and allow for additional research on the effects of conservation practices for different resource characteristics such as climate, terrain, land use, and soils. Watershed studies will be conducted to improve the performance of the national assessment models and to demonstrate that more specific benefits can be identified and measured when assessed at a finer scale. Three categories of watersheds will be selected: ARS research watersheds, NRCS special emphasis watershed, and CSREES competitive grant watersheds.
10. Personnel changes
    Douglas Lawrence is the new Director of the Economics Division.
    In September, 2004, NRCS reorganized and eliminated the Regional Offices and Institutes. A new National Technology Support Center was created with locations in Portland, Oregon; Greensboro, North Carolina; and, Fort Worth, Texas. The new NTSC economists are: Kevin Boyle in Portland, David Buland in Fort Worth, and Madalene Ransom in Greensboro. The number of regions has also been reduced from six to three with a politically appointed regional associate chief supervising the state conservationists in each state. It is hoped that the reorganization will allow more economics being supplied to the field staff. The new organization chart is at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/organization/.
11. The listing of NRCS economists is at http://www.economics.nrcs.usda.gov/Contact/directory.html
12. The NRCS Exhibit is located near the AAEA Posters. Please stop by for much more information on NRCS programs and data.

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