Farmers: USDA Cost-Share Programs are Worth Considering
Farmers, have you ever considered any of the USDA cost-share programs? Depending on your situation, you may be doing both your pocketbook and the environment a favor.
There are a number of benefits cost-share programs can bring to your operation. They include: guaranteed income, a reduction in soil erosion, better soil moisture absorption and retention, minimizing flood damage, protection from pesticide drift, odor control, enhanced wildlife habitat, and stabilized stream banks.
For more information about USDA programs, Please visit their website at www.or.nrcs.usda.gov.
Here is a basic overview of some of the more popular programs:
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Through traditional or continuous sign up CRP, you can receive annual rental payments and cost-share assistance to establish long-term, resource conserving covers on eligible farmland. CRP encourages farmers to convert highly erodible land to vegetative cover, such grasses, wildlife plantings, trees, filter strips, or riparian buffers.
Annual rental payments are based on soil types. CRP also provides cost-share assistance for up to 50 percent of the participant’s expenses in establishing approved conservation practices.
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) In Oregon, CREP was designed to improve the water quality of streams providing habitat fish listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Many of the streams and rivers in Yamhill County are eligible for CREP, so be sure to ask about your particular situation.
Like CRP, annual rental payments are based on soil types, but CREP provides cost-share assistance for up to 75 percent of the participant’s costs in establishing approved conservation practices. Fifty percent of funding comes from FSA and 25 percent comes from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. Currently, there are also incentive payments that can be added to the 75 percent base rate.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) EQIP offers financial and technical help to assist eligible participants install or implement structural and management practices on eligible agricultural land. Incentive payments may be provided for up to three years to encourage producers to carry out management practices they may not otherwise try.
EQIP activities are carried out according to a plan of operations developed jointly between the producer and NRCS. The practices are subject to NRCS technical standards that are adapted for local conditions. If they want, farmers and ranchers may elect to use certified third-party providers for technical assistance.
EQIP may cost-share up to 75 percent of the costs of certain conservation practices. However, limited resource producers and beginning farmers and ranchers may be eligible for cost-shares up to 90 percent.
To find out what kind of benefits cost-share programs can bring you, please see Lorrie Atkinson at the McMinnville FSA/NRCS Service Center, 2200 SW 2nd Street, or call her at (503) 472-1474. Information on USDA programs is also available on the Internet at: http://www.usda.gov/farmbill/conservation_fb.html
