§ 657.4 NRCS responsibilities.

(a) State Conservationist. Each NRCS State Conservationist is to: (1) Provide leadership for inventories of important farmlands for the State, county, or other subdivision of the State. Each is to work with appropriate agencies of State government and others to establish priorities for making these inventories. (2) Identify the soil mapping units within the State that qualify as prime. In doing this, State Conservationists, in consultation with the cooperators of the National Cooperative Soil Survey, have the flexibility to make local deviation from the permeability criterion or to be more restrictive for other specific criteria in order to assure the most accurate identification of prime farmlands for a State. Each is to invite representatives of the Governor's office, agencies of the State government, and others to identify farmlands of statewide importance and unique farmlands that are to be inventoried within the framework of this memorandum. (3) Prepare a statewide list of: (i) Soil mapping units that meet the criteria for prime farmland; (ii) Soil mapping units that are farmlands of statewide importance if the criteria used were based on soil information; and (iii) Specific high-value food and fiber crops that are grown and, when combined with other favorable factors, qualify lands to meet the criteria for unique farmlands. Copies are to be furnished to NRCS Field Offices and to National Soil Survey Center. (see 7 CFR 600.2(c), 600.6) (4) Coordinate soil mapping units that qualify as prime farmlands with adjacent States, including Major Land Resource Area Offices (see 7 CFR 600.4, 600.7) responsible for the soil series. Since farmlands of statewide importance and unique farmlands are designated by others at the State level, the soil mapping units and areas identified need not be coordinated among States. (5) Instruct NRCS District Conservationists to arrange local review of lands identified as prime, unique, and additional farmlands of statewide importance by Conservation Districts and representatives of local agencies. This review is to determine if additional farmland should be identified to meet local decisionmaking needs. (6) Make and publish each important farmland inventory on a base map of national map accuracy at an intermediate scale of 1:50,000 or 1:100,000. State Conservationists who need base maps of other scales are to submit their requests with justification to the Chief for consideration. (b) National Soil Survey Center. The National Soil Survey Center is to provide requested technical assistance to State Conservationists and Major Land Resource Area Offices in inventorying prime and unique farmlands (see 7 CFR 600.2(c)(1), 600.4, 600.7). This includes reviewing statewide lists of soil mapping units that meet the criteria for prime farmlands and resolving coordination problems that may occur among States for specific soil series or soil mapping units. (c) National Office. The Deputy Chief for Soil Survey and Resource Assessment (see 7 CFR 600.2(b)(3)) is to provide national leadership in preparing guidelines for inventorying prime farmlands and for national statistics and reports of prime farmlands.