News Release Draft

NEWS RELEASE

United States Department of Agriculture

NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS SERVICE

[FIELD OFFICE NAME] FIELD OFFICE

[ADDRESS]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact: [Firstname] [Lastname]
	(XXX) XXX-XXXX

USDA to Survey [State] Irrigation Organizations

[CITY, STATE] – [Month ##], [Year] -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will gather information water districts, irrigation businesses, companies or individuals who store or distribute water across [State], as part of the 2019 Survey of Irrigation Organizations.

“This survey is long overdue, the last one having been conducted in 1978,” said NASS [STATE] State Statistician [FIRSTNAME LASTNAME]. “The industry and policy makers need updated information to make decisions and guide water distribution practices in a rapidly changing irrigation landscape.”

NASS enumerators will conduct the survey by mail and online starting as early as February 2020, and recommend irrigation businesses and organizations have their records available to speed up the survey process. This year NASS is reaching out to over 16,000 such organizations across the country.

Irrigation organizations are defined as a group of individuals, a company, a governmental district or agency, or an individual that operates facilities to supply irrigation water to two or more farms or ranches, or stores irrigation water. It may be either a formal legal organization, or an informal or cooperative arrangement. In many parts of the country, particularly in the arid portions of the West, irrigation is necessary for the production of most crops. Water for irrigation is obtained from two primary sources: surface water (streams and lakes) and ground water (wells and springs).

Data provided by organizations is confidential and protected by law. NASS further safeguards the privacy of all respondents by publishing only aggregate data, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified.

This survey is a joint effort of NASS and USDA’s Economic Research Service. For more information about the 2019 Survey of Irrigation Organizations visit www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Irrigation_Organizations/index.php.

Survey results and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov/Publications. For more information call the NASS [STATE] Field Office at [TOLL-FREE NUMBER].

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NASS is the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture and is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.

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