Monitoring Assessment & Evaluation Reports & Articles

FSA and USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation Business Center work with partners on CRP assessments that quantify outcomes and inform policy.  We encourage government agencies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations to view this year’s assessment opportunities and to submit a brief pre-proposal for one or more of interest. 

The deadline to submit pre-proposals here for the following two assessment opportunities is July 8, 2022:

• Lessons learned for CRP from ranches practicing regenerative agriculture
• New approaches for setting Primary Nesting Season

Details can be found here. 

Five additional assessment opportunities are posted on GRANTS.GOV . Pre-proposals for these are due August 1.

The opportunity number for the first is USDA-FSA-MULTI-CRP-22-NOFO0001210  

• Using human centered design to improve access to and the appeal of CRP across a diversity of eligible producers.

The number for the other four is USDA-FSA-MULTI-CRP-22-NOFO0001209

• Collecting data about the seed (or seedling) mixes planted on land enrolled in CRP,
• Tracking haying and grazing and other managements on land enrolled in CRP,
• Developing an CRP offer submission process that improves the customer experience and increases conservation benefits, and
• Evaluating plant composition and productivity on land enrolled in CRP using remote sensing data and machine learning techniques.

Project Summaries

Click on the links below to view summaries of recent projects.

Bird Conservation Benefits of the CRP

Assessing the Impact of the CRP on Honey Bee Health

Prairie Strip Benefits

Saturated Buffers

• Assessing on-the-ground implementation of conservation practices in CRP fields across the west
• Decision support tools for CRP Grasslands in the Northern Great Plains for grassland birds
• Chesapeake Bay gains from CREP and opportunity for improvements
• Understanding landowner motivations for CRP participation, retention, and behaviors

Project Reports

Click on the text below to view full reports from completed projects.

Multiple Benefits Studies

Wildlife Studies

Water Quality and Quantity Studies

Pollinator Studies

MAE Research Reports

Ongoing Studies

MAE projects often require multiple years of observation to complete. This page lists the projects that have been funded and are under way.

Other Links

Numerous organizations have monitoring and assessment programs that complement FSA’s MAE project and provide information on the benefits of the CRP.

Webinars

Links to previous webinars on MAE projects are available on this site.