USDA Conservation Technical Assistance and Within-Field Resource Concerns

by Andrew B. Rosenberg and Steven Wallander

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides conservation planning and field-level assessments of conservation strategies, and serves as one of multiple sources from which agricultural producers can receive conservation technical assistance. This bulletin looks at how many fields in oats, cotton, wheat, and soybeans have farmer-reported, on-field resource concerns and whether farmers received technical assistance to address these concerns from USDA or other sources. Farmers report that 49 percent of these fields have at least one resource concern and 26 percent have multiple resource concerns. Of the fields represented with at least one resource concern, 24 percent received technical assistance. Sixty-seven percent of assisted fields received assistance from USDA, NRCS.

Keywords: Resource concerns, technical assistance, working lands conservation programs, soil health, conservation practice, erosion, soil compaction, low organic matter, poor drainage

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