The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that oversees the United States Department of Agriculture's activities recently issued a report that found the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) were not adequately monitoring conservation compliance as required in all farm bills since 1985, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

Conservation compliance is a mechanism that requires agricultural producers to meet a minimum threshold of conservation actions on land they farm in exchange for receiving farm support payments through many of USDA's programs. The 2014 Farm Bill expanded conservation compliance requirements to include the federal crop insurance program which has grown over the years to be the largest farm support program.

The report says, in part, that the NRCS and the FSA did not adequately collaborate to monitor conservation compliance during the period 2012 through 2015. No checks were conducted in 10 entire states, including major agricultural states like Iowa and Illinois. In addition, no checks were conducted on producers participating in several entire programs that were subject to highly erodible lands and wetlands conservation provisions.

USDA agreed with the findings in the report and has made recommendations as to how they will correct the problems. The OIG has accepted those recommendations as adequate.

View the full report. (pmr)