FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Laura Zaks

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

press@sustainableagriculture.net

Tel. 347.563.6408

Release: NSAC Publishes “Conservation Practices for Agricultural Resilience: A Resource Guide”

Washington, DC, October 29, 2026 – Today, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) released Conservation Practices for Agricultural Resilience: A Resource Guide, a new publication identifying the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation practice standards that help farmers and ranchers build resilience to drought, flooding, and other extreme weather, while improving soil health, protecting water quality, decreasing greenhouse gases, and reducing input costs. 

Producers and land managers are experiencing the impacts of extreme weather and other environmental and financial stresses firsthand. NRCS conservation practice standards offer well-established tools for responding by building soil health and fertility, sequestering carbon, enhancing infiltration and water-holding capacity, supporting biodiversity, and delivering long-term ecological and economic benefits. Practices that address multiple natural resource concerns and practices that are implemented together to support and build upon one another can further enhance an operation’s resilience to severe climate impacts. 

Producers can develop conservation plans with NRCS through a collaborative process that combines and customizes practices to fit an operation’s goals, resources, and regional conditions. This guide is designed to support that process, helping producers and the partners who work with them consider the climate, ecological, and economic benefits of practices on their operations. 

“The high-impact practices in this guide have documented benefits for farms building resilience to more unpredictable weather, and they’re even more effective in combination to address whole-farm resource concerns. We are excited to share this guide, and we hope that producers and the planners and organizations supporting them will find it a valuable reference,” said Richa Patel, NSAC Policy Specialist. 

This guide covers 30 conservation practice standards, detailing the resource concerns addressed, the supporting and companion practices that increase effectiveness, and notes on considerations for implementation. A set of example scenarios showcases how practices can combine at a system-level across annual cropping, perennial systems, livestock production, and organic management. 

Learn more about the guide here or download the publication at NSAC’s publications page. 

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more: https://sustainableagriculture.net/