WASHINGTON, D.C. — A 13-state, $10 million initiative will bring together farmers, technicians with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and local organizations to enhance water quality in the Mississippi River basin, USDA officials announced April 7.

The project will focus on 27 new high-priority watersheds located within the basin, along with 13 existing projects, to help strengthen agricultural operations while addressing critical water quality concerns and boosting rural economies.

"These projects put to work some of our core conservation practices, which we know are having tremendous impacts downstream," said NRCS Chief Jason Weller. "Putting to work NRCS-recommended conservation practices helps clean and conserve water, makes agricultural operations more resilient and stimulates rural economies, as this work often relies on help from biologists, foresters, pipe makers, dirt movers, welders, engineers and many more different professions to implement."

USDA’s $10 million investment comes as part of its commitment of $100 million over four years to address water quality concerns in priority watersheds. Projects will be funded in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, along with projects in Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Conservation practices will include those that promote soil health, reduce erosion and lessen nutrient runoff – such as the establishment of cover crops, reduced tillage, nutrient management, agricultural waste management systems, irrigation systems and wetland restoration.

The efforts will help capture and recycle nutrients back to farm fields and restore wetlands to increase wildlife habitat, mitigate flooding and improve water quality, according to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

"We know that when we target our efforts to the places most in need, we see stronger results," he noted. "These projects focus on watersheds in need, where we have opportunities to work with partners and farmers to get conservation work on the ground."

To establish the announced projects – which are funded through USDA’s Mississippi River Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI) – the NRCS collaborated with state agencies, farmers and others to identify high-priority watersheds strongly supported by agriculture and where targeted conservation projects can make the most gains in improving local and regional water quality.

The MRBI projects will use funding from several farm bill conservation programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), to help farmers adopt conservation practices on their ground. NRCS has worked with more than 600 partners and 5,000 farmers and landowners to improve more than 1 million acres in the Mississippi River basin since MRBI’s origin in 2009, according to USDA.

Conservation work on cropland in the basin has reduced the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus flowing into the Gulf of Mexico by 18 and 20 percent, respectively, according to findings published in a 2014 report from USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP).

CEAP models have also shown MRBI’s targeted approach has enhanced the per-acre conservation benefit by 70 percent for sediment losses, 30 percent for nitrogen and 40 percent for phosphorus, when compared to general conservation activities. Two MRBI-targeted stream segments in Arkansas’ St. Francis River watershed have been removed from the U.S. EPA’s list of impaired streams, USDA indicated.

New projects include targeted conservation efforts in the Headwaters-Big Pine Creek area in Indiana, the Lower South Fork Root River watershed in Minnesota and Long Lake in Mississippi. For a full list of projects, see the NRCS website at www.nrcs.usda.gov