Simplifying the Process of Accessing Financial Incentives

Simplifying the Process of Accessing Financial Incentives

Tim Hammerich
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
It’s time for your Farm of the Future Report. I’m Tim Hammerich.

Progress toward a more sustainable agriculture often includes new practices at the farm. This means that it’s the farmer who has to take the financial risk of new practices not working out. The government has tried to help through the EQIP program, and a new startup called FarmRaise wants to make it easier for farmers to access these funds. Here’s co-founder and CEO Jayce Hafner.

Hafner… “Primarily the program that farmers can access today is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). And this is a financial incentive through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is a division of the USDA. And what this funding essentially supports is conservation practices on the farm and more specifically investments in farm infrastructure with a conservation outcome. So this can be practices like new fencing that allows the farmer to holistically manage their cattle. It can be riparian buffers for wildlife, cover crops, no-till all that sort of thing. And so when the farmer wants to apply for those opportunities, they have to complete a pretty rigorous application process, which we've simplified down considerably to 15 minutes. And then when they get that financial incentive, they also have to report out on the expenses and the practices that they're implementing to be able to unlock that USDA funding. So we'll be able to help the farmer on the backend as well.”

FarmRaise can help farmers discover eligibility for this and other incentive programs at www.FarmRaise.com.

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