United States Department of Agriculture

About NASS

Director, Statistics Division

Troy Joshua

Troy Joshua is the director of the Statistics Division and executive director of USDA’s Agricultural Statistics Board at the National Agricultural Statistics Service. He is responsible for the statistics used by the Agricultural Statistics Board in establishing estimates and forecasts of the nation’s agriculture; evaluating commodity statistics; determining needs and implementing proper statistical plans; and ensuring that appropriate methods and procedures are used in all phases of the agency’s statistical program.

He has more than 29 years of experience with NASS. Prior to this appointment, he served as the director of Western Field Operations within NASS. In this capacity, he oversaw budget, personnel activities and program implementation for six regional field offices covering 22 states.

From 2016 – 2018, he held the chief of staff position with the responsibility for strategy and formulating budgets while enhancing the agency’s relationship with legislative affairs. From 2012 until 2016, Joshua served as chief of the Environmental, Economics and Demographics Branch. He led the agency’s efforts to produce and release data on number of farms, land in farms, labor, economics, computer usage, chemical-use on the farm, producers’ demographics and the Current Agricultural Industrial Reports covering the amount of crops used to produce ethanol and coproducts, flour, and fats and oils. Joshua also served on the North American Tripartite Committee on Agricultural Statistics.

In 2011, Joshua was the special assistant to the deputy administrator for Field Operations, overseeing the agency’s 24 northeastern and southeastern field offices including Puerto Rico. From 2005-2012, he served as director of the agency’s New Jersey Field Office. He has also worked as the national cotton statistician and agricultural statistician in the California and Mississippi field offices.

Joshua was born in St. James, Louisiana. He has a master’s degree in agriculture economics from Washington State University and a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business from Southern University.