USDA Staffing Cuts Hurt Farmers and Rural Communities

While the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not confirmed the number of employees that have already been laid off or their plans for a forthcoming “reduction in force”, staffing chaos has reigned at the agency for the past several weeks. The firing of nearly 6,000 probationary employees was ruled illegal and extensive terminations are being reported across agencies including the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), among others. USDA even mistakenly fired key staff responding to the current bird flu outbreak. 

USDA staff in all agencies provide essential services to farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. They administer and manage a wide range of programs and technical assistance that keep farms working and the agricultural economy functioning. In many cases, they are hard working, valued members of the rural communities they serve all across the country. This post examines what is at stake if USDA staffing cuts continue. 

Farmers, Communities Lose When Staff Are Cut

After waiting eight months for his NRCS job to start, Josh Hardin was finally settling into his role as a district conservationist, recruiting new participants, keeping contracts on schedule, and guiding farmers through conservation programs, when he was suddenly let go in the mass firing of probationary employees. In his region of Arkansas, farmers had gone years without a local NRCS office, and when he was hired, they were relieved to have someone who knew the land, the programs, and their needs. “Finally, somebody who knows what’s going on and knows how to help us,” one told him. But just as he was getting his footing, he was fired, leaving colleagues scrambling and farmers without the staff to support them. This time of year is particularly busy at NRCS offices as they prepare for spring deadlines to rank new applications and assess current contracts. Without adequate staffing, contract work has fallen behind, and farmers who had just started building trusting relationships with NRCS are now left without guidance. 

“One office cannot handle eight counties. Farmers and landowners cannot drive four counties over to sign a paper or have a meeting, they need to go back to their work,” he said, emphasizing how staff losses break vital local connections. Fortunately, Hardin is one of the many recently fired USDA staffers who hope to soon return to work after the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) determined that their firings were illegal. 

Stories like Josh’s are being replicated around the country as staffing cuts take effect. Agripulse reports that at least eight USDA offices in Indiana, six in Kansas, five in Oklahoma, four in Missouri, and three in Minnesota have no NRCS staff following the first wave of layoffs. Farmers in all of these states and counties are now guaranteed to experience delayed conservation planning services, overwhelmed staff, and a sense that the systems they rely on are unraveling. NRCS staff are essential for delivering technical assistance and helping farmers and ranchers implement conservation practices that improve their environmental and economic outcomes. They guide producers through popular and over-subscribed conservation programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Cuts to NRCS staff undermine the delivery of these wildly popular programs.

NSAC member Renewing the Countryside (RTC), which supports farmers and rural communities in the Upper Midwest, says they are also already feeling the impacts of USDA staffing cuts. RTC has previously held events at USDA service centers as a way to “let producers get to know where the service centers are, who to talk to in which office within the service center, and help get the USDA faces familiar so that producers are comfortable when they need the resources.” Facilitating these visits has proven an effective way to connect historically underserved farmers to USDA. When they reached out to schedule a next group visit, however, RTC was told that due to limited staff capacity they would be unable to hold the meeting at the local USDA office. The senior state official encouraged RTC’s farmers to schedule one-on-one visits, but that can be intimidating for producers who are unfamiliar with the USDA. 

Staffing Cuts Cause Long-Term Research Loss

One of the agencies hit hard by the first round of layoffs has been USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). NSAC member the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) reports that between 10-50% of the workforce at some ARS sites has been terminated. The firing of these scientists throws vital agricultural research into immediate disarray as the scientists who run the projects are unable to staff and support the research. These cuts have meant the immediate end of research with long-term implications for agriculture, like research done by Cornell PhD student Alex Lando who studies the potential for Entomophthoralean fungi which could provide a safer alternative to chemical pesticides. The loss of ARS staff and associated research will reverberate for decades and undermines much needed innovation in agriculture and forestry. 

Probationary Employees: The First to Be Laid Off

Employees in their probationary period, typically those with less than one year of service or two years in an excepted service appointment, have been particularly vulnerable to massive federal layoffs. On January 20, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo to all federal agencies that led to the firing of thousands of probationary federal employees. The number of probationary employees at the USDA and the extent of their firings is unclear as the agency has not publicly reported their staffing cuts. While the firing of nearly 6,000 USDA probationary employees was determined to be illegal, it is possible that the scope of firings has been and will be much wider. Using public data from OPM’s Fedscope federal workforce data, we estimate the number of probationary employees across the USDA is more than double that number, meaning thousands more critical staff may be vulnerable to cuts.

According to the most recent FedScope data available, in September 2024 there were 12,231 employees, or 12.42% of the USDA’s workforce, that had been in their position for less than one year. These employees were most likely still on probationary status and the number is likely higher considering that probationary periods may extend for up to two years for some positions.

Among USDA divisions, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) had the highest percentage of employees with less than one year in their position (17.42%), likely due to recent efforts to rebuild staffing levels following its relocation to Kansas City. The Forest Service (17.27%) and Agricultural Research Service (15.47%) also had high shares of employees with less than one year in their positions, suggesting that any widespread layoffs could disproportionately impact these agencies. 

Divisions with the highest percentage of employees with less than one year of service include (full table in appendix):

Geographic Breakdown: Where Layoffs Could Hit Hardest

Looking at employment patterns by state, USDA employees in the western US appear to have the highest likelihood of being affected. California had the largest number of USDA employees with less than one year in their positions (1,733), followed by Oregon (1,042), Montana (776), Idaho (734), and Washington (622). In percentage terms, Idaho (21.1%), Montana (20.8%), and Oregon (20.79%) had some of the highest shares of newer employees. These states could see significant staffing reductions if layoffs target probationary employees.

Telework, Return-to-Office Orders, and Additional Workforce Reductions

In addition to layoffs of probationary employees, on January 20 the White House issued an Executive Order requiring departments terminate remote and telework arrangements for federal employees. This will likely lead to further staff reductions if employees are unable or unwilling to work in-office or to relocate if their duty station is not local. 

According to the FedScope data from September 2024, 42.74% of USDA employees (42,086 individuals) were eligible for telework. While not all telework-eligible employees will leave their jobs if required to return to in-person work, even a 10% attrition rate among this group could result in more than 4,000 additional departures.

Divisions with the highest percentage of telework-eligible employees include (full table in appendix):

If USDA continues pushing for a full return-to-office policy, the loss of telework-flexible jobs could further exacerbate staffing shortages.

Implications for Farmers and Rural Communities

Significant workforce reductions at USDA will have far-reaching implications for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities that depend on agency services. Agencies like NRCS and FSA play critical roles in delivering conservation assistance, loans, and disaster assistance programs. A depleted workforce in these divisions could lead to delays in program delivery, reduced technical assistance, and weakened implementation of conservation and farm resilience efforts.

For example, NRCS has already lost a substantial portion of its 1,299 employees with less than one year in their positions, impacting the agency’s ability to process Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contracts—two programs that are hugely popular and over-subscribed. Already, only about one quarter of CSP applications are funded each year. Staffing cuts endanger the recruitment, ranking, and support for these hugely popular programs, and will guarantee frustrating and necessary delays for producers. Further, NRCS, and FSA staff located in county service centers are hardworking, respected members of rural communities. Indiscriminately firing them only harms the social and economic fabric of small towns across the country.

Restoring USDA’s Workforce

Without confirmed numbers from USDA, we can only estimate the scope of current layoffs—but reports suggest thousands of employees. The impacts of the first wave of USDA layoffs are already being felt by farmers and rural communities. In an NSAC briefing on March 6, Adam Chappell, a farmer from Cotton Plant, Arkansas, shared his dismay about staff losses: “The NRCS in Arkansas, we depend on it. It has saved our farm a couple of times because it’s allowed us to implement programs and conservation that have allowed us to cut inputs like herbicides and fertilizers and things. And without them, I wouldn’t be here fighting the fight now. And we were already short staffed in Arkansas.” 

Plans for even more widespread staff cuts would be devastating and would undermine the ability of farmers to access the support they need, especially as tariffs threaten an even more difficult few years ahead. 

The administration’s indiscriminate staffing cuts have already had significant consequences, leaving farmers and rural communities without critical support. The USDA must immediately stop these reckless and indiscriminate firings and take urgent steps to rehire essential staff to restore its capacity to deliver vital programs and services across farm country.

Appendix: USDA Staff

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