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Welcome to the new Mississippi Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) website! The tabs at the top of the page are linked to the general NRCS information. For Mississippi's specific information, continue scrolling down the page.
Please join us on November 08, 2023, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in person or virtually for our State Technical Committee Meeting.
The Mississippi Natural Resources Conservation Service has a proud history of supporting America's farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners.
Since 2013, Kurt Readus has served as the State Conservationist for Mississippi.
Kurt was born and raised in North Alabama. He graduated from Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science. Kurt has twenty-five years of service with Natural Resources Conservation, beginning as a student trainee in Arizona and Alabama in 1998.
After two years as a student trainee, Readus became a Soil Conservationist. In 2005, he was promoted to District Conservationist in the Avondale Field Office in Arizona. In 2007, he accepted the position of Area Conservationist for Central Mississippi. He guided twenty-one field offices and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) Tribal Field Office. He served as Assistant State Conservationist for Programs in Mississippi from January 2011 to September 2013. In September 2013, he became the State Conservationist for Mississippi.
During his career with NRCS, he has served on various details, which include National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as the Acting Deputy Chief for Science and Technology, Director of Financial Assistance Programs Division, National Conservation Stewardship Team, and Acting Deputy State Conservationist for California.
He is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute, Certificate of Mastery, Leadership for a Democratic Society August 2018, Leadership Mississippi Class of 2016, Mississippi Economic Council, M.B. Swayze Foundation, and the National Leadership Development Program, National Employee Development Center, Class of 2010.
He is married to Dr. Fonda Readus and has five beautiful children to keep his heart and mind on the country's future.
For more than 80 years, we have helped people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.
We provide services to all private landowners interested in restoring and enhancing our sprawling landscape through a unique partnership with landowners, conservation districts, state and local governments, and rural and urban citizens.
The Mississippi Natural Resources Conservation Service has a proud history of supporting America's farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners.
NRCS accepts applications year-round. Apply by your state's ranking dates to be considered for funding in the current cycle. Funding is provided through a competitive process. If you apply after the program ranking date, NRCS will automatically consider your application during the next cycle.
For more information regarding Ranking Dates, please read News Release below.
Welcome to My NRCS Career!
Whether you are an established NRCS employee looking for career path information or you are browsing potential careers with NRCS for the first time, this website will provide the information you are seeking. You can:
Welcome to the NRCS Students and Recent Graduates information center! This is your one-stop site for information about student and recent graduate opportunities at NRCS. We offer internships for high school students and degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students studying agricultural and natural resources-related fields such as plant pathology, agronomy, range science, soil science, forestry, ecology, botany, biology, civil and agricultural engineering. We also offer programs for recent graduates from qualifying institutions. Please find information regarding your eligibility below.
The Pathways Programs offer clear paths to opportunities with NRCS for students from high school through post-graduate school. The Pathways Programs consist of the Internship Program, the Recent Graduates Program, and the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program.
This program is targeted at current students and individuals accepted for enrollment in a qualifying educational program. This program provides students enrolled in a variety of educational institutions, with paid opportunities to work in agencies and explore Federal careers while still in school.
The Recent Graduate program targets individuals who have recently graduated from qualifying educational institutions or programs. Eligible applicants must have applied within two years of degree or certificate completion. Successful applicants will be placed in a dynamic, one-year career development program.
Presidential Management Fellows Program
The PMF program is the Federal Government's premier leadership development program for advanced degree candidates. This program is aligned with academic calendars, allowing those who have received a qualifying advanced degree within the preceding two years to participate. The PMF experience is the most robust and substantive option available to student participants.
USDA works to establish opportunities that ensure equitable participation in USDA programs, services, and resources for rural, tribal, and historically underserved students. These partnerships support capacity building initiatives that bolster education and career opportunities for students and faculty and help develop a strong pipeline of talent for USDA.
1890 Land-Grant Institutions National Program
The 1890 National Scholars Program is available to high school seniors entering their freshman year of college, and college sophomores. The program provides full tuition, fees, books, and room and board to students at 1890 Land-Grant Universities pursuing degrees in agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines. When the student has completed the academic and summer work requirements of the scholarship, USDA may convert the student to a permanent employee without further competition.
The USDA 1994 Tribal Scholars Program seeks to increase the number of American Indian and Alaska Native students studying agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, and related disciplines. The program provides full tuition, fees, books, and room and board to students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, food science, natural resource science, or a related academic discipline at one of 35 federally recognized tribal colleges and universities. When the student has completed the program, USDA may convert the student to a permanent employee without further competition.
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NRCS provides financial assistance for selected conservation practices. The availability and amount of financial assistance can vary between states.
The National Civil Rights Advisory Committee to the Chief (NCRACC) is designed to provide management officials and employees with counsel and advice to enhance and ensure compliance with their equal employment opportunity and program delivery responsibilities.
State Technical Committees serve in an advisory capacity to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and other agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on the implementation of the natural resources conservation provisions of Farm Bill legislation.
Do you farm or ranch and want to make improvements to the land that you own or lease?
Natural Resources Conservation Service offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
To get started with NRCS, we recommend you stop by your local NRCS field office. We’ll discuss your vision for your land.
NRCS provides landowners with free technical assistance, or advice, for their land. Common technical assistance includes: resource assessment, practice design and resource monitoring. Your conservation planner will help you determine if financial assistance is right for you.
We’ll walk you through the application process. To get started on applying for financial assistance, we’ll work with you:
Once complete, we’ll work with you on the application, or CPA 1200.
Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they’re considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time.
As part of the application process, we’ll check to see if you are eligible. To do this, you’ll need to bring:
If you don’t have a farm tract number, you can get one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm tract number if you’re interested in financial assistance.
NRCS will take a look at the applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, the amount of conservation benefits the work will provide and the needs of applicants.
If you’re selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done.
Once you sign the contract, you’ll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you’ll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications.
