By George Pavelis, Douglas Helms, and Sam Stalcup

This report examines historical expenditures on 32 conservation programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), and their predecessor agencies. It provides a summary history of the development of USDA conservation programs and examines conservation expenditures with respect to the use of funds for technical assistance (TA) or financial assistance (FA) and the use of funds on working lands or land retirement. A narrative report and database of these expenditures in a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet are available at the links below.