Agricultural Drainage Management Systems Task Force

The Agricultural Drainage Management Systems Task Force (ADMS) is a national partnership with the goal of improving drainage practices to reduce adverse environmental impacts while enhancing crop production and conserving water (Fouss and Sullivan 2009). The ADMS Task Force was initiated in the Fall of 2002 by federal, state, and local government agencies and universities. The Task Force seeks to reduce the loss and transport of fertilizer nutrients from drained agricultural croplands in the Midwestern States, and ultimately to implement drainage management practices on a large enough scale (watershed-by-watershed) in the Midwest to decrease transport of excess nutrients to downstream waters such as the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie.

The Partnership Management Team (PM) of three USDA agencies – Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), has provided a structure for collaboration among these groups. The ADMS Task Force partners with the Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition (ADMC), an organization of drainage manufacturers, contractors, and trade associations, and also with the North Central Extension and Research Activity 217 (NCERA-217), a multi-state research group sponsored by USDA-NIFA and land-grant universities.

Since its initiation in 2002, the ADMS Task Force has held 29 meetings. Notes for most of these meetings are available below.