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Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) |
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EQIP is a voluntary USDA program that provides technical and financial assistance to eligible farmers or producers to treat natural resource concerns on their land. There have been some changes made to EQIP with this new Farm Bill. A few of these changes are: · Producers can receive cost share payments in the same year that the contract is approved. · The “bid-down” provision (i.e. an applicant could accept 50% cost share instead of 75% to increase their application being accepted) has been eliminated. · The minimum length of an EQIP contract has been reduced to 1 year after implementation. The maximum length remains at 10 years. · The maximum cost-share rate is 75% but for limited resource producers and beginning farmers may be eligible for up to 90% cost-share. · Livestock operations are eligible to receive cost-share payments for waste storage facilities. · Conservation Priority Areas are no longer required. (Anyone in DeKalb County is eligible) · At least 60% of the EQIP funds will be targeted to livestock production practices, including grazing. · Incentive payments are available for developing a comprehensive nutrient management plan. As you can see these changes have the EQIP cost share program eligible to more producers in DeKalb County. You may also be wondering if whether or not land in CRP is eligible for EQIP funding? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Any land currently in CRP is not eligible during the term of the CRP contract. If this program sounds like something you would be interested in contact Dave Hines or Bill Lambert at DeKalb County’s USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service office at 942 W. 15th Street, Auburn, IN 260-925-3710 ext. 3. For an application. You can also visit the USDA’s website for more information on this and other 2002 Farm Bill programs at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/farmbill/2002/products.html |