The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), has been reaching out to almost 12,000 farmers, ranchers, and agricultural landowners nationwide, which includes just over 200 of those being from Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. This effort is to gather in-depth information about the conservation practices they use through the 2024 Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) survey. Data from this survey will support the third set of national and regional cropland assessments delivered by CEAP, a multi-agency effort led by NRCS to quantify the effects of conservation practices across the nation’s working lands.
Local NASS representatives already visited farmers and agricultural landowners to determine if their operations and properties met the criteria to be considered eligible candidates for the survey. And now through March 2025, eligible farmers and landowners may be contacted and asked to participate in the survey. Typical questions will discuss farm production practices; chemical, fertilizer, and manure applications; tillage; irrigation use; and installed conservation practices. NASS will provide survey data to NRCS, the agency tasked with publishing findings.
“There are more than 300 million acres of cultivated cropland across the United States. These working lands are used by farmers and other land managers to grow a diversity of crops to provide food, fuel, and livestock feed for our nation and beyond,” said NRCS Chief Terry Cosby. “CEAP delivers critically important data to inform strategic voluntary conservation on cropland acres nationwide. This leads to healthier ecosystems, improved conservation effectiveness, stronger management of agricultural landscapes that are often more productive, and equitable delivery of NRCS programs and services.”
CEAP cropland assessments quantify the environmental outcomes associated with implementation and installation of conservation practices on agricultural lands. Results of the survey may help evaluate the resources farmers may need in the future to further protect soil, water, and habitat, shed light on techniques farmers use to conserve healthy environments, improve and strengthen technical and financial programs that help landowners plan and install conservation practices on agricultural land, and support the conservation programs that can help producers’ profits while also protecting natural resources.
This CEAP survey is conducted through a cooperative agreement between NRCS and NASS, and all information collected will be kept confidential, as required by federal law. The agencies only publish data in aggregate form, ensuring that no individual respondent or operation can be identified.