NCCPI stands for the National Commodity Crop Productivity Index, a model developed by the USDA’s National Soil Survey Center that rates how well a given piece of land can produce common crops without irrigation. Scores range from 0 to 1 (sometimes expressed as 0 to 100), with higher numbers indicating more productive soil. The index is used across USDA programs, land appraisals, and tax assessments to compare the agricultural potential of different soils on a national scale.
How the NCCPI Works
The model combines three categories of data to generate a productivity score for any mapped soil type in the United States: inherent soil properties, landscape features, and climatic characteristics. Soil properties include things like texture, drainage, depth to bedrock, organic matter content, and how well the soil holds water. Landscape features account for slope, aspect, and flooding risk. Climate data captures growing season length, temperature ranges, and typical rainfall patterns.
By pulling all of these factors together, the NCCPI estimates how productive a soil would be under standard farming conditions, specifically for dryland (nonirrigated) commodity crops. The word “inherent” is key here. The index measures what the soil and climate can naturally support, not what a particular farmer has achieved through irrigation, fertilization, or other management practices. Two fields with the same NCCPI score should, in theory, have roughly equal natural potential for growing the same crop.
Crops the Index Covers
The NCCPI assigns ratings for major dryland commodity crops: corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, sorghum, and barley. Rather than producing a single blanket score, the model can generate crop-specific ratings. A parcel of land in Kansas, for example, might rate highly for wheat but lower for corn, reflecting how well the local soil and climate match each crop’s needs.
These crop-specific ratings are useful because soil that excels at growing one commodity may be mediocre for another. A well-drained sandy loam in a warm climate might score well for cotton but poorly for crops that need more moisture retention. The NCCPI is not meant to replace state-level crop performance indices, which often incorporate local management data and yield histories. Instead, it provides a standardized national baseline.
Who Uses NCCPI Scores
The model was originally developed for use with USDA programs like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays landowners to take environmentally sensitive cropland out of production. NCCPI scores help program administrators compare the agricultural value of land being enrolled, ensuring that decisions about conservation payments are grounded in consistent productivity data rather than subjective estimates.
Beyond federal programs, NCCPI data has found a role in farmland appraisal and property tax assessment. New Jersey, for instance, partnered with Rowan University to build an online mapping tool that incorporates soil productivity data by tax parcel, giving municipal officials and landowners a standardized reference point during farmland assessment and reassessment. Land appraisers in other states use similar data to help determine the agricultural value of a property, which directly affects how much a landowner pays in taxes.
Farmers, real estate professionals, and land investors also reference NCCPI scores when evaluating parcels for purchase. A high score signals that the land has strong natural productivity, while a low score might indicate limitations like poor drainage, shallow soils, or a short growing season that would require significant investment to overcome.
Where to Find NCCPI Data
NCCPI scores are available through the USDA’s Web Soil Survey, a free online tool that lets you draw a boundary around any piece of land in the U.S. and pull up detailed soil data, including productivity ratings. The tool generates reports showing the NCCPI score for each soil type mapped within your area of interest, broken down by crop where applicable.
The current version of the model is NCCPI 3.0, and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) publishes a user guide that details the methodology. Because the index relies on national soil survey data, scores are only as precise as the underlying soil maps. In areas where soil surveys are older or mapped at a coarser scale, the ratings may not capture field-level variation. For site-specific decisions, on-the-ground soil sampling still matters.
What NCCPI Scores Don’t Tell You
The index measures natural, unimproved productivity for dryland farming. It does not account for irrigation, which can dramatically change what a piece of land can produce. A parcel in arid western Nebraska might score low on the NCCPI but produce excellent corn yields under center-pivot irrigation. Similarly, the index doesn’t factor in modern management practices like precision fertilization, tile drainage, or cover cropping, all of which can push actual yields well above or below what the raw soil potential suggests.
NCCPI scores also don’t reflect specialty crops like fruits, vegetables, or nuts, which have very different soil and climate requirements than the commodity grains and fiber crops the model was built for. If you’re evaluating land for a vineyard or an orchard, the NCCPI won’t be particularly helpful.