08/19/08 The new farm bill and EQIP

Farm and Ranch August 19, 2008 Congress made some changes in the popular Environmental Quality Incentives Program or EQIP in the new farm bill. First of all, funding for the voluntary conservation program was increased by 27 percent. The farm bill also adopts a new process for determining payment levels for conservation practices based on the costs associated with adopting a practice and the revenue foregone by a producer. During a recent visit to the Northwest, Arlen Lancaster, chief of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, hi-lighted some other changes. Lancaster: "And you saw this throughout the farm bill, this bigger emphasis on beginning farmers and ranchers and socially disadvantaged producers. So they created a new payment structure in the bill where beginning farmers and ranchers and socially disadvantaged producers get a certain percentage more in terms of their cost share and they have the ability to get 30% advance payment for materials. So we are trying to figure out how best to accomplish those things so we can ensure the integrity of the program. But as well Congress validated some of what we are doing in terms of our work on forest lands, our work on energy conservation. Some of the challenges will be the tighter payment limit for the program and then there is a new organic provision in the bill that is really looking at those conservation practice issues with organic." There is the old CSP program and the new CSP. Lancaster on that tomorrow. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.