USDA Launches 'Farmer First, Field Focused' Conservation Pilot in Nine States
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in Honolulu, Hawaii, on November 2 that its Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is launching the "Farmer First, Field Focused" pilot, a new framework designed to prioritize conservation planning, streamline financial assistance, elevate locally led conservation priorities, and give producers a more informed, transparent path to conservation planning and financial assistance.
Under the new model, producers will first work one-on-one with NRCS to develop conservation plans based on their natural resource concerns and goals, and then make financial assistance decisions based on those plans. Field office technical staff will focus solely on conservation planning, while program specialists manage contracts, payments and administrative tasks, allowing field staff to spend more time on the land delivering technical assistance.
The pilot also streamlines how assistance is awarded: pilot states will establish and communicate funding priorities using a consistent framework, replacing the ranking process with a streamlined evaluation process to improve transparency and reduce unnecessary complexity. Producers can expect less paperwork, clearer timelines and faster funding decisions, USDA said.
The pilot has rolled out in nine states across all four NRCS regions: Hawaii, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia. NRCS expects the pilot to save the agency more than 400,000 hours, repurpose almost 1.4 million hours toward higher-value field work, and redirect $3 million to locally led conservation priorities.
"Our job is to help farmers and ranchers find practical conservation solutions that work for their operations, and that starts with listening to the producer and getting in the field," said J.B. Martin, NRCS Director in the Pacific Islands Area. For more than 90 years, NRCS has provided one-on-one technical advice and financial assistance to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners through voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs. (Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国农业部总部 Jamie L. Whitten 联邦大楼（联邦固定图库）。公共领域照片，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building, USDA headquarters in Washington (federal asset pack). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
