Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP): Status and Issues

Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division. Publisher Library of Congress. About Browse this Partner.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

What Descriptive information to help identify this report. Identifier Unique identifying numbers for this report in the Digital Library or other systems. Collections This report is part of the following collection of related materials. About Browse this Collection. Digital Files 1 html file. When Dates and time periods associated with this report. Creation Date March 2, Eligible partners or groups 16 submit project proposals to conserve ground and surface water or improve water quality in a specified area. NRCS selects projects based on requirements established in a Federal Register notice 17 and enters into agreements with selected partners.

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Producers may either 1 apply directly to NRCS for approved agricultural water enhancement activities or 2 apply through the partner or group who submits applications on the producer's behalf. The program, implemented through EQIP, is intended to leverage federal investment, stimulate innovative approaches to conservation, and accelerate technology transfer in environmental protection, agricultural production, and forest management. Examples of CIG projects include developing market-based approaches in conservation, demonstrating precision agriculture, capturing nutrients through a community anaerobic digester, and establishing a tribal partnership for regional habitat conservation.

The farm bill made some modifications to the CIG program. EQIP continues to receive widespread support in the farm community and in Congress, as it remains the major source of financial and technical assistance to help producers implement conservation practices that address specific resource and environmental problems. During the th Congress, several issues may attract congressional interest, including budgetary pressures, a continuing backlog of unfunded applications, program reauthorization, and measuring program accomplishments. Another possible reduction to EQIP funding could come during farm bill reauthorization, as the authorizing committee seeks to offset funding for other farm bill programs.

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Most policy observers expect the next farm bill will be budget-neutral and written using only the current budget "baseline. Congress faces difficult choices about how much total support to provide agricultural conservation, and how to allocate it among competing programs. A main justification for the large funding increase in the farm bill was to respond to a large backlog of producer demand that had been documented during the farm bill debate.

Despite this increase in funding, the number of pending applications continues to exceed the amount of available funding see Table 3. Although this gap now constitutes a smaller portion of applications, it is still an issue for many producers who seek environmental assistance and are continuously denied funding due to budgetary constraints. This issue will likely intensify if annual appropriations continue to reduce actual funding or if funding is reduced to offset additional funding for other programs.

According to NRCS, valid unfunded applications include preapproved, deferred, eligible, pending, and disapproved applications. One reason why higher funding has not resulted in the elimination of the backlog is that the average contract size has grown since the farm bill. This will continue to be an issue as it is widely believed that the lower payment limitation will not greatly reduce the number of unfunded applications. Section of the farm bill made certain conservation activities involving the development of plans eligible for financial assistance under EQIP.

Traditionally, technical assistance provides the planning, design, and technical consultation functions, while financial assistance offers monetary support for implementation capacity.

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While the farm bill amendment specifically includes comprehensive nutrient management planning CNMP , NRCS has expanded the list of eligible CAPs to include forestry management, energy management, and pollinator habitat, among others. On the other hand, the additional administrative measures required to write CAP contracts could offset time savings devoted to technical assistance.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP): Status and Issues - www.newyorkethnicfood.com

This issue could be debated in the next farm bill as CAPs and their implementation are reviewed. From available records, NRCS can provide considerable information about EQIP contracts, including which conservation practices are being installed, and their design and maintenance standards. However, until recently, relatively little was known about what is actually being accomplished through EQIP contracts. CEAP was originally intended to account for the benefits from the farm bill's substantial increase in conservation program funding through the scientific understanding of the effects of conservation practices at the watershed scale.

Initial findings show beneficial effects from conservation practices as well as additional application needs. Working lands conservation programs are typically classified as programs that allow private land to remain in production, while implementing various conservation practices to address natural resource concerns specific to the area.

Other conservation programs retire land from production or place restrictive easements on the land. USDA combines these three groups and refers to them as "historically underserved producers. A beginning farmer or rancher is defined as having farmed for less than 10 consecutive years. Socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers are defined as having been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities. Previously, USDA included gender prejudice in the definition of a socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher; however, changes in the farm bill removed gender from the definition, as it applies to conservation programs.

Input from Outside Groups, Agencies, and Citizens: The list of eligible practices in New York, payment rates and limits, eligible resource concerns, and state scoring criteria are developed based on input and recommendations from the State Technical Committee STC. The STC is made up of representatives from various agribusinesses, producer groups, conservation organizations, and federal, state, and tribal government agency representatives.

Local Work Groups LWG are subdivisions of the State Technical Committee that provide county level feedback to influence the resource concerns addressed, ranking questions asked, and practices offered.

The priorities set at the state and county level are those that the STC and LWG respectively determined were of the greatest need and would have the greatest positive environmental impact. The scoring process at both the state and local level was developed in order to select those projects that would provide the greatest environmental benefit, and therefore provide the greatest public good.

Learn more about the criteria required to become an eligible EQIP applicant. Learn how to get started with NRCS. Sign up for Farm Bill email updates. Through EQIP, agricultural producers receive financial and technical assistance to implement structural and management conservation practices that optimize environmental benefits on working agricultural land.