Roles and Responsibilities

Historically, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has provided the vast majority of engineering technical assistance (TA) to implement the engineering practices included in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) program contracts. The 2002 Farm Bill included a significant increase in financial assistance to accelerate conservation practice implementation, thus the quantity of TA necessary to keep pace with the accelerated conservation practice implementation far exceeded the capacity of the current NRCS workforce, and the role for technical service providers (TSP) was clearly defined.

The roles and responsibilities of the USDA program participant, NRCS, and the engineering TA provider are different for each of sources of technical assistance.  Thus guides that follows North Dakota National Engineering Manual policy were developed to ensure effective and efficient delivery of engineering TA, regardless of the source, through a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities for all parties involved. The fact sheet for each source includes a description of roles and responsibilities along with an identification of the rules and/or policy that govern the activities.  For more information review the North Dakota National Engineering Manual.