| (Washington, D.C., October 24, 2026) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Jared Isaacman signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and NASA that will strengthen USDA’s data quality and help ensure that American farmers and ranchers benefit from and have access to cutting-edge technologies. Effective immediately, both Departments will work together to guide cooperation on integrating Earth observation, geospatial analytics, and statistical methodologies in support of agricultural statistics and aligned with USDA’s ongoing data and technology modernization efforts. “American farmers are the best in the world and deserve any solution we can leverage, even when it is out of this world. I am proud to announce that USDA will now work with Administrator Isaacman and NASA to utilize the full power of technology, research, and development to fortify U.S. agriculture,” said Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. “With this unprecedented partnership the Trump Administration is committing to a bright future of research and tech opportunities that will enhance USDA acreage and yield estimation and drive profitability for American agriculture.” The partnership between the two Departments is long-standing, but new opportunities to improve crop performance for Earth and space-based goals were initiated in December 2025, when President Trump issued Executive Order 14369, “Ensuring American Space Superiority.” At that time, NASA and USDA began to explore creative new ways to improve American and global agriculture, observe the environment, and contribute to better human health. “NASA develops some of the most advanced sensing, computing, and analytical capabilities in the world, and we should put those tools to work wherever they can deliver meaningful outcomes for the American people,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “By combining NASA’s Earth observation data and technical expertise with USDA’s knowledge of American agriculture, we can improve the information available to farmers and ranchers, strengthen our understanding of crop conditions and natural hazards, and pursue new high-risk, high-reward ideas that advance both science and American competitiveness.” The scope of cooperation under this MOU may include, but is not limited to, agricultural statistics, remote sensing science, modeling, geospatial data engineering, and super intelligence/machine learning (SI/ML) supported by the participants. As priorities evolve, additional areas of cooperation may be identified. Areas of cooperation include: - Mission/Data Alignment: Regular technical exchanges to align USDA statistical requirements with NASA Earth science missions and data products (e.g., satellite observations, model outputs, and derived geophysical variables).
- Data Access & Infrastructure: Discussions on scalable access patterns to NASA archives, cloud‑native geospatial formats, application programming interfaces (APIs), and workflow orchestration that enable USDA production operations.
- Methodology & Validation: Joint technical reviews of algorithms for crop condition indicators, yield models, planted/harvested area estimation, and disaster impact assessment, including approaches to bias correction, uncertainty quantification, and validation using statistically sound frames and ground data.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive, and the participants intend to work together to investigate opportunities for collaboration under this MOU. This effort supports the USDA Data Modernization Plan (PDF, 5.3 MB) launched by Secretary Rollins last month to put Farmers First, reduce unnecessary burdens on producers, and improve the timeliness, accuracy, and usefulness of the agricultural data that inform decisions across American agriculture. To learn more, please view the USDA and NASA Memorandum of Understanding (PDF, 163 KB). |
