Building Network of Soil Data Remains A Priority At USDA

A recent conference at USDA brought together soil scientists from around the country.  The main issue: building a network of soil data.

"And the soil moisture network impacts not just agriculture but communities," said Mary Podoll with NRCS.  "And so NOAA has a part and NASA has a part and USGS has data or wants data and NRCS has some technical expertise."

"So individually there's no one home, or house, or the network and all the data that we could capture and analyze and put out as information," Podoll added.

"The goal is not to have separate systems, but for us all to be able to pull our data together and everybody to benefit from it," said David Hoover Director of the NRCS's Soil Survey Center in Lincoln, NE.  "Not just Oklahoma from Oklahoma data, but benefit from all great plains data or any other part of the country."

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