GLICKMAN
ANNOUNCES $200 MILLION FOR 1998 ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INCENTIVES
PROGRAM
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| WASHINGTON, Jan. 26,
1998--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced state
funding allocations for $200 million for 1998 under U. S.
Department of Agriculture's Environmental Quality Incentives
Program (EQIP). "The EQIP program proved itself a winner from
the start," said Glickman. "In less than a year it has
become one of the most popular conservation programs at USDA, not
to mention its long term environmental benefits. "There is a
strong demand for voluntary conservation efforts, and EQIP helps
farmers and ranchers meet that demand with financial, technical,
and educational assistance, as well as incentives," Glickman
said.
Under EQIP, USDA can provide cost-share assistance to
family-sized farms and ranches for up to 75 percent of the costs
of certain environmental protection practices, such as grassed
waterways, filter strips, manure management facilities, -capping
abandoned wells and wildlife habitat enhancement. USDA also may
provide incentive payments to encourage producers to apply such
land management practices as nutrient, manure, irrigation water,
wildlife, and integrated pest management.
EQIP was authorized by the 1996 Farm Bill to
address agriculture's priority natural resource and environmental
problems. It reflects the commitment of USDA and the Congress for
a flexible, effective, voluntary conservation program for
agricultural land. One emphasis in EQIP is the leveraging of EQIP
funds with other conservation efforts to foster even greater
stewardship of natural resources. This has happened around the
country. Examples include:
| --Among the
efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, the Deer Creek EQIP
priority area in Harford County, Maryland, is helping
farmers address animal waste, the top concern in that area.
In addition to EQIP funds, the Maryland Department of
Agriculture provides cost-share funds and the combined
funding has made it possible for dairy farmers, for example,
to upgrade animal waste storage facilities that were
prohibitively expensive before. In 1998, EQIP will also be
used to assist with the Maryland programs to address toxic
Pfiesteria in the Chesapeake Bay drainage areas.
--In North Carolina, more than $700,000 of EQIP funds
will be joined this year with more than $800,000 of state
cost-share funds to reduce nitrogen in the Neuse River basin
by 30 percent. Massive fish kills and the discovery of
Pfiesteria in the Neuse have brought this river national
attention. Sources of nitrogen in the basin include swine
and poultry operations, municipal sewage, and agricultural
runoff. NRCS, the Cooperative Extension Service, and the
North Carolina Division of Soil and Water Conservation have
formed a partnership to help landowners in the basin design
and install best management practices. Common practices that
will be used include nutrient management plans, riparian
buffers, filter strips, conservation tillage, crop
rotations, stripcropping, and animal waste treatment
facilities.
--In Wisconsin, the Oneida Tribe and two county land
conservation departments have formed a partnership to reduce
nonpoint source pollution in the Duck and Ashwaubenon Creek
watersheds in cooperation with local, tribal, state, and
federal agencies. In addition to the 1998 EQIP proposal for
vegetative buffers, wetland restoration, nutrient and pest
management, and improved tillage, the state is projecting
its funding at S I O-S 15 million over a 10-year period in
this priority area.
In 1997, the first year of the EQIP program, USDA
approved 23,000 long-term contracts with farmers and
ranchers. Nearly 58,000 applications for assistance were
received, with requests totaling more than three times the
amount of available funding.
EQIP assistance is provided primarily to state Priority
areas. Each state's Priority areas were determined locally
and then approved by the NRCS state conservationist, in
conjunction with state technical committees and USDA Farm
Service Agency personnel. Under EQIP, priority areas are
watersheds, or geographic regions, with (1) special
environmental sensitivity, such as important wetland areas,
or (2) significant natural resource concerns, such as manure
management, soil erosion control, and water quality.
For 1998, producers will be able to sign EQIP contracts
once state priority areas are selected for funding. In the
meantime, producers may contact local USDA Service Centers
and NRCS, which administers the program, for information on
possible eligibility for EQIP. Producers also can work with
NRCS to develop their own conservation plans which are
required for any EQIP contract.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program Fiscal Year
1998 Funds Distribution
State Amount
Arkansas $3,200,000
Kentucky $2,891,000
Louisiana $5,311,000
Mississippi $5,391,000
Missouri $4,975,000
Tennessee $3,056,000
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service News Release,
Jeannine B. May - Public Affairs Specialist (601) 965-4337,
E-Mail: jbm@mS.nrcs.usda.gov |
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