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Aerial view of a river with trees on both sides running through agricultural land. There are mountains with fall foliage in the background and cloudy blue skies above.

This blog by Chief Terry Cosby details some of the key ways USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service supports producers and conservation partners in improving water quality and strengthening agricultural operations through voluntary conservation.

All life depends on clean water, and how we manage our land affects surrounding waterbodies. With nearly 40% of U.S. land in farms, agriculture offers a major potential to support water quality improvements nationwide. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) delivers science and data, one-on-one technical support, and cost share opportunities to ensure this potential is realized. Here’s how we support agricultural producers and conservation partners in achieving wins for water quality and working lands.


We provide strategies to improve cropland nutrient management on a field-by-field basis.

When farmers effectively manage nutrients from commercial fertilizer, manure, and other inputs, they minimize the losses of those nutrients from their fields into local waterbodies. While all crops need nutrients to grow and thrive, effective nutrient management is not one-size-fits-all. NRCS works with farmers to achieve SMART Nutrient Management.

A SMART Nutrient Management Plan includes the four Rs of nutrient stewardship we’ve used for years – the right Source, or type of nutrients; the right Method for applying them; the right Rate at which they’re applied; and the right Timing of application – while additionally emphasizing the need for a comprehensive Assessment of site-specific conditions. No two fields have identical histories or plans for production. When farmers work with NRCS to develop a SMART Nutrient Management Plan, our conservationists assess site-specific risks for nutrient and soil loss and offer opportunities to address those risks, all through voluntary measures.

This provides a way to boost crop yields, bottom lines, and water quality benefits all at once. In fact, farmers on average save $30 per acre on land currently receiving excess nutrients by implementing a SMART Nutrient Management Plan with NRCS. This Conservation Outcomes Webinar recording offers a detailed overview of SMART Nutrient Management and the science behind this approach.

Soybeans emerge in a field with residue. There's a green hill in the background and blue skies above.
Soybeans sprout through terminated cereal rye and corn residue in a no-till field. From before planting to after harvest, farmers can work with NRCS to develop site-specific, data-driven SMART Nutrient Management Plans to maximize yields and minimize nutrient losses. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, NRCS

We build the science base needed to effectively address nutrients across agricultural landscapes.

Managing nutrients as they’re applied is just one step in supporting water quality improvements. While this is vital, we must also understand and address nutrients that were previously not used by crops. These legacy nutrients may persist for decades in cropland soils and surrounding waterbodies.

Legacy nutrients present a major water quality challenge that can’t be fixed through SMART Nutrient Management alone. Improving conservation outcomes requires targeted, data-driven efforts at multiple scales – within fields, beyond the edges of fields, and across watersheds – to effectively address both current and legacy nutrient sources. Our Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) plays a key role here.

Through CEAP Watershed Assessments, NRCS works with producers and partners to quantify the outcomes of voluntary conservation in select watersheds nationwide. This blog explains how. CEAP provides data-driven insights to inform delivery of our conservation programs and initiatives and the systems of practices we plan with landowners to manage both current and legacy nutrients in-field and beyond.

Our new USDA Legacy Phosphorus Assessment Project webpage highlights a key example of CEAP efforts to advance the science behind legacy nutrient mitigation to support effective conservation strategies. Legacy phosphorus will be the focus of our next Conservation Outcomes Webinar, scheduled for 2:00 p.m. eastern on August 22. This free, one-hour webinar is open to all and will provide insights that producers and other landowners, conservationists, and researchers may use to more effectively manage for legacy phosphorus to improve water quality nationwide.* Visit our Webinar Series webpage for additional details and instructions to join. 

* The recording of this one-hour webinar is now available.

Light brown water runs off of a corn field, with green corn plans in the background.
Valuable soil and nutrients may be lost from cropland fields as runoff. While this is a potentially stress-inducing reality, there’s cause for hope. NRCS provides the scientific understanding we need to both minimize current losses through voluntary conservation efforts and manage legacy nutrients that may persist across watersheds. Photo Credit: Chris Lee, NRCS

We work one-on-one with farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners.

As Chief of USDA’s primary private lands conservation agency, I’m regularly in awe of the power of voluntary conservation to deliver lasting results for our natural resources. Farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners are among the nation’s most dedicated stewards. At NRCS, we’re here to serve them.

The Conservation at Work Video Series features producers and NRCS staff talking about some of our voluntary conservation practices. This includes two-minute videos on conservation crop rotation, cover crop, field border, filter strip, grassed waterway, prescribed grazing, riparian forest buffer, and other practices that support water quality improvements. Systems of conservation practices used together often deliver the greatest benefit. How? This is not something producers have to figure out alone.

I encourage all producers to connect with the NRCS office at their local USDA Service Center. NRCS staff can visit your operation and share one-on-one technical expertise to meet your needs. They may also provide details on our programs, like the Conservation Stewardship Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program, that deliver cost share to help eligible producers implement systems of NRCS conservation practices.

From small-scale farmers like Maigee Chang, who owns a 2.25-acre farm in Hawaii, to Walt Bones, a retired South Dakotan whose family manages multiple operations, producers nationwide are partnering with NRCS to strengthen their working lands and keep our waters clean. Join them, and us. Together, we will deliver wins for agriculture and water quality through data-driven, voluntary conservation.

USDA staff walk alongside a producer on a path between crops. A high tunnel and home are visible in the background.
NRCS staff are available nationwide. They’ll walk your land with you, learn your unique conservation and production goals, and help you develop and deliver on a plan to conserve natural resources while strengthening your operation. Photo Credit: Preston Keres, USDA