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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1863; 161 years ago (1863) |
| Jurisdiction | Federal government of the United States |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent department | United States Department of Agriculture |
| Website | http://www.nass.usda.gov/ |
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is the statistical branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. NASS has 12 regional offices throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and a headquarters unit in Washington, D.C. NASS conducts hundreds of surveys and issues nearly 500 national reports each year on issues including agricultural production, economics, demographics and the environment. NASS also conducts the United States Census of Agriculture every five years.
During the Civil War, USDA collected and distributed crop and livestock statistics to help farmers assess the value of the goods they produced. At that time, commodity buyers usually had more current and detailed market information than did farmers, a circumstance that often prevented farmers from getting a fair price for their goods. Producers in today's marketplace would be similarly handicapped were it not for the information provided by NASS.
The creation of USDA's Crop Reporting Board in 1905 (now called the Agricultural Statistics Board) was another landmark in the development of a nationwide statistical service for agriculture. A USDA reorganization in 1961 led to the creation of the Statistical Reporting Service, known today as National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).[1]
The 1997 Appropriations Act [2] shifted the responsibility of conducting the Census of Agriculture from U.S. Census BureautoUSDA. Since then the census has been conducted every five years by NASS. Results from the 2012 Census of Agriculture were released on May 2, 2014.[3]
The primary sources of information for NASS reports are farmers, ranchers, livestock feeders, slaughterhouse managers, grain elevator operators and other agribusinesses. NASS relies on these survey respondents to voluntarily supply data for most reports.
NASS surveys are conducted in a variety of ways, including mail surveys, telephone interviews, online response, face-to-face interviews and field observations. Once the information is gathered and interpreted, NASS issues estimates and forecasts for crops and livestock and publishes reports on a variety of topics including production and supplies of food and fiber, prices paid and received by farmers, farm labor and wages, farm income and finances, and agricultural chemical use. NASS's field offices publish local data about many of the same topics.
Producers, farm organizations, agribusinesses, lawmakers and government agencies all rely on the information produced by NASS. For instance:
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| Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs |
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| Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment |
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| Under Secretary for Rural Development |
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| Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services |
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| Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety |
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| Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics |
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| Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs |
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| Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation |
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| Office of the Chief Financial Officer |
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*Reports directly to the Secretary of Agriculture | ||
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| Principal agencies |
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| Other agencies |
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As defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the principal agencies of the Federal Statistical System have statistical activities as their core mission and conduct much of the government’s statistical work. | |
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