Implementing the New Farm Bill: Year Two

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at the National Association of Conservation Districts North East Region Meeting, Shepherdstown, WV
August 11, 2003


Good Morning. Thank you for inviting me to talk about the 2002 farm bill.

Let me begin by saying that conservation districts are a vital part of the locally led approach to conservation. The strong working relationships you have developed with a wide range of agricultural interests in the public and private sectors alike are important to getting conservation done. These relationships allow farmers to reach their conservation goals the right way – through local decision making. The new farm bill makes these relationships more important than ever!


Farm Bill Implementation

Four activities have dominated our efforts over the last year or so to implement the farm bill:
getting the word out, getting the conservation on the ground – first for 2002, and now for 2003, writing the rules for farm bill programs, and implementing the Technical Service Provider process.

Getting the Word Out

This year in particular, we must increase our efforts to get the word out, so we are sure we have reached the underserved groups in the producer community. USDA is being held increasingly responsible for delivering Agriculture programs to all citizens in this country, and that responsibility flows through agreements and contracts everywhere Federal dollars are involved.

In May, we held a Partnership Diversity Summit in Washington, DC, to bring together the leaders of several major partner organizations: NACD, NARC&DC, NASCA, and NCDEA, along with the presidents of most of the NRCS employee organizations. Many of us met again last month at the NARC&DC annual meeting in San Antonio to review an action plan for reaching these goals.

Getting the Conservation on the Ground

Our second major task has been putting the conservation on the ground. Last summer, before the 2002 fiscal year ended, we released nearly $750 million for EQIP, WRP, WHIP, FPP, (which is now called the FRPP) and Ground and Surface Water Conservation.

This year, we picked up the pace a bit, although we were still later than anyone wanted. Secretary Veneman allocated this year’s money to the States on Earth Day – April 22. The total allocation for fiscal year 2003 was $1.8 billion.

Writing the Rules

We have also been working hard to write the rules necessary to implement the conservation provisions of the farm bill. While rules seem mundane, they are vitally important to ensuring the effectiveness of the programs.

Implementing the Technical Service Provider Process

Our other major activity during the past year has been to design and implement the Technical Service Provider process.

The huge farm bill investment for conservation creates a tremendous workload for NRCS, and the temptation would be to hire hundreds or even thousands of additional employees to get the job done. The Technical Service Provider process gives us another way – a better way – a way that is consistent with keeping government small and keeping functions that are available commercially from becoming part of the Federal government.

The Technical Service Provider process should actually strengthen the partnership between NRCS and conservation districts, States, professional associations, Tribes, and others who will be providing the service. This is why we made adjustments to the rule this spring to ensure that we would continue to build upon the partnership.

More than 1600 potential Technical Service Providers have applied for certification through our TechReg site on the Internet. About half of them have completed the certification process.

We have also been gathering data to allow the State NRCS offices to determine the not-to-exceed rate for each service in that State. These rates are now posted on the Web.

The TechReg site is a wonderful example of e-government at its best. Through it, we have a great tool that service providers can use to apply for certification, NRCS can use in the certification process, and producers can use to locate providers.

We still have a lot of work to do, But we are in a very good position to meet the final challenges, of getting the Technical Service Provider system up and running in the next few weeks so the Technical Service Providers can, in turn, help us deliver conservation on the ground this summer.

We -- NRCS and the partners -- had many other accomplishments last year.

We applied resource management systems on more than 22 million acres. We helped farmers and ranchers reduce the risk of drought and flooding on 13 million acres. We served more than 3 million customers in our offices. We completed new soil maps or updated soil maps on 23 million acres.

We also served 2 million costumers through our PLANTS database, performed more than 1 million hours of volunteer conservation work through the Earth Team, and provided more than $100 million in drought and disaster assistance

In addition, the RC&D areas completed more than 4,000 projects, with the help of more than $252 million from other sources. And we informed 35 million people of Backyard Conservation.


Our Strategic Plan

We still have a lot to do to implement the farm bill over the next few years. In addition to reaching out to all producers, including underserved groups within the agriculture community, we must also make sure the applications we approve meet local and national priorities and invest the conservation dollar wisely to get the most conservation done.

Focusing On Conservation Goals

In setting and meeting priorities, we have to focus more on conservation goals and less on programs. We must get as much good, priority-based conservation done on the ground as we can.

Getting More Conservation Done

We need to look carefully at applications in a number of ways to be sure we are getting the most for the taxpayer dollar. We also need to look at other sources of funds to see how to leverage the Federal dollar. The Federal government and the producers can get more conservation done when the cost is shared several ways.


Conclusion

To summarize, let me say that we have made a strong start toward implementing the new farm bill, with its tremendous investment in conservation on working lands. But to be successful in the long run, we need to be more strategic.

We need to make sure every producer knows about the farm bill and has a chance to participate. We depend on the continued efforts of conservation districts to help get the word out.

We need to focus more on overall conservation goals and less on program implementation. I mentioned that NRCS needs to focus on accepting applications that meet local and national priorities. Conservation districts can help spread the word on these priorities.

And finally, we need to get the most conservation done that we can for the money. We need to use incentives properly, and we need to leverage the Federal funding. Conservation districts can help by developing new partnerships.

As we add more partners, NRCS will increasingly serve as a conservation catalyst, an enabler of good conservation. Working together, we can make the right choices, get more conservation on the ground, and make the farm bill live up to its potential.

Together we can all help producers achieve excellence in conservation. I look forward to working with all of you to make the next golden age of conservation a reality.

Thank you.