Non-substantive Change Request for Chickpeas and Potatoes

May 13, 2020

Non-substantive Change Request to Field Crops Docket 0535-0002

Following the completion of each Census of Agriculture, NASS conducts a thorough review of all our programs to determine if any of our surveys or publications need to be adjusted in order to make the best use of tax payer’s dollars. In March of 2019 NASS published a document that listed all the program changes that we would be making to our Field Crop Programs https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Program_Review/2019/Field-Crop-Program.pdf. Continuing with that process, NASS has several more non-substantive changes to implement.

• In the current OMB approval for Field Crops (0535-0002), NASS collects acreage and production data with the December Dry Bean Inquiry for Chickpeas (large and small), Black Beans, Black Eyed Peas, Great Northern White Beans and several other dry beans. Also approved in this docket is the September Pea and Lentil survey which also collected acreage and production data.

After reviewing the target populations for each of these surveys it was determined that it would be more efficient to make some minor adjustments. The chickpea questions will be moved from the December survey to the September survey. The dry peas and lentils will be dropped from the September survey since they have already been moved to the September Ag Yield questionnaire which is included in the Agricultural Surveys docket (0535-0213). This change should allow NASS to improve the sampling of these targeted groups of farmers. The sample sizes and respondent burden will remain the same.

• In September of 2019 NASS renewed the approval of the Vegetable docket (0535-0037) which added the collection of sweet potato data as a vegetable (for NASS data collection purposes). As a part of this non-substantive change NASS is now dropping sweet potato data collection from the Field Crops docket to complete the transfer.

• Based on our program review for potatoes, which are also included in the link above, most of the States producing summer potatoes were dropped from our annual estimating program, (8 States down to 1 State; TX would be the only State left in the program). Historically, NASS has only had 2 States included in the spring potato survey (CA and FL) and now with only 1 remaining summer potato State, it did not make sense to continue conducting seasonal potato surveys. Therefore, NASS has decided to discontinue the seasonal surveys and just collect all potato data with the two surveys conducted in the fall. The two fall surveys have been converted from fall to all potatoes.

The changes made to the sweet potatoes and the spring/summer potatoes results in a net decrease in respondent burden of 455 hours and 1,800 responses.

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