03/21/08 EQIP cut-off date moved up to July

Washington Ag March 21, 2008 The USDA's Natural Conservation Service has announced a major change in the application ranking cut-off date for Washington's most popular agricultural conservation program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP. Brown: "We have moved up our sign up cut-off this year for the fiscal year 2009 EQIP funds to July the 15th." That is NRCS Assistant State Conservationist for Programs Dave Brown who explains why the move to July 15th for ranking for 2009 funding. Brown: "One of the critical things for making a good EQIP contract is having a good conservation plan to base it on. And what we are trying to go with our new cut-off date is to provide a good window of time during the field season, August, September, October, for the conservationist and the applicant to spend some time on the farm and get that good conservation plan developed. Then we can use that for the basis of our EQIP contract." In 2006 and 2007 Washington agricultural producers qualified for more than 30-million dollars in financial assistance through EQIP, which generally pays for half the costs of conservation measures and practices such as improving irrigation efficiency, reducing soil loss or managing animal waste. I'm Bob Hoff.