06/27/08 Farm bill conservation funding up 36%

When Congress passed the new farm bill lawmakers put more money into conservation programs. The head of the National Resources Conservation Service Arlan Lancaster says funding is up 36 percent and there are changes in some of the conservation programs. CSP for example, the Conservation Security Program has been completely changed and that will take some learning for farmers and FSA employees. LANCASTER "But beyond that largely Congress kept the existing programs intact in the regular form with minor adjustments here and there. We're feeling pretty confident that we'll be able to get those programs out to producers in 2009 to help them do conservation on the landscape but there will be some challenges." Lancaster says Congress gave USDA agencies 90 days to get the rules written for new farm bill provisions. LANCASTER "Many of the programs the changes are modest and so we'll be able to get some of those rules out very quickly. In some instances they add a state or they change a figure and for us we're going through the entire rule making process. We're not doing it in a vacuum, certainly we're working with the public, the rest of the administration to issue those rules as quickly as possible." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott