WASHINGTON, DC – Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) held a celebration for the agency’s 90th anniversary here on the USDA Whitten Building patio. USA Rice was invited to attend the event and heard from a slate of speakers including NRCS Chief Aubrey Bettencourt and NRCS Historian Dr. Shelby Callaway.
USDA officials credited Hugh Hammond Bennett as the father of conservation and the driving force behind the 1933 establishment of the Soil Erosion Service, which was formed in the Department of the Interior, with Bennett as chief. The service was transferred to the Department of Agriculture on March 23, 1935, and was shortly thereafter combined with other USDA units to form the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) by the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1935. Bennett continued as chief, a position he held until his retirement in 1952.
On October 20, 1994, the SCS was renamed the Natural Resources Conservation Service as part of the Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994.
“As a key partner of NRCS in the private sector, USA Rice was excited to be a part of the 90th anniversary celebration along with our industry’s biggest conservation partner, Ducks Unlimited,” said USA Rice President & CEO Peter Bachmann. “Long before our Rice Stewardship Partnership came to fruition in 2013, rice farmers had been heavily involved in the key NRCS working lands conservation programs like EQIP and CSP to ensure they were meeting their on-farm economic and environmental sustainability goals.”
Since the
Rice Stewardship Partnership’s inception, USA Rice and Ducks Unlimited have jointly worked with NRCS to bring more than $170 million in funding for working lands conservation to American rice farmers.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with this critical farmer first Federal agency to meet our industry’s goals and to Chief Bettencourt for her leadership during this period in the farm economy when growers will be leaning on cost-share programs at NRCS more than ever to help make their margins,” Bachmann concluded.