Fiscal Year 2003: Performance Report U.S. Department of Agricultire Natural Resources Conservation Service

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We helped farmers and ranchers develop conservation plans for a total of 11.7 million acres of cropland and 22.2 million acres of grazing land. We helped them apply conservation practices on 10.8 million acres of cropland and 19.8 million acres of grazing land. The land on which conservation was applied made up 2.7 percent of the Nation's cropland and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land and 5.8 percent of the Nation's rangeland and pastureland. On about 60 percent of the land where practices were applied, the conservation system provides what conservationists call the "resource management system" or "RMS" level of protection (Table 1 and Figure 3.) This means that all conserva- tion measures needed to fully protect the resource base against the problems identi- fied for the site have been planned and applied. Much of the help we provide to pro- ducers who want to adopt these compre- hensive systems is provided through the Conservation Technical Assistance pro- gram, which is the source of the basic sci- ence -based information and expertise needed for sustainable resource use. Table 1. Cropland and grazing land on which conservation was applied in FY 2003 with NRCS assistance. Performance Goals Performance Indicators FY2003 FY2003 Target Actual Million acres Maintain, restore, and Cropland where resource 6.29 6.69 enhance the productive management systems capacity of cropland were applied Maintain, restore, and Grazing land where 10.32 11.89 enhance the productive resource management capacity of grazing land systems were applied Figure 3. Acreage treated with NRCS assistance in fiscal years 2000 -2003, million acres. 20 — - 18 Cropland Treated to RMS Grazing Land Treated to RMS Cropland Treated, less than RMS O Grazing Land Treated, 16 less than RMS 14 12 10 0 FY 2000 FY 2001 FY 2002 FY 2003 Source: NRCS Performance and Results Measurement System. Fiscal Year 2003 Performance Report Conservation Planning Is Fundamental "We knew we'd face some challenges when looking to diversify our opera- tion while protecting our natural resources," they said. "But the conser- vation planning process provided by NRCS has been the best tool for help- ing us work through all the issues asso- ciated with reaching our conservation goals." A farm family in Towner County, North Dakota, comments on the con- servation technical assistance they receive from NRCS. The farm has an EQIP contract that has been instrumental in the success of their elk operation, in addition to the technical assistance they received for their crop residue management of wheat, canola, and sunflowers, along with a prescribed grazing system that included cross fencing, pipelines, tanks, and grass plantings.