- Concept vs. Reality
- State Cost: Share Availabe
- USDA Offers new incentives to farmer
Columbia, MO. April 24, 2000 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering up to $350 million in new incentives to landowners to install conservation buffers along streams, wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas. The new financial incentives include signing bonuses and more money for installing and maintaining conservation practices. The incentives are enhancements in the USDA’s new sign-up period 22 for the continuous sign-up of the Conservation Reserve Program. Designed to protect more environmentally sensitive land, the incentives include:
1. An upfront bonus incentive of $10 per acre for every full year the contract covers. This amounts to $100 to $150 per acre at the start of the contract to help defray up-front installation costs for filter strips, riparian buffers, grasses waterways, field windbreaks, and shelter belts.2. A payment incentive equal to 40 percent of the practice installation cost of all continuous CRP practices, including contour buffer strips and shallow water areas for wildlife. This is in addition to the 50 percent cost-share paid by USDA for establishing certain approved practices.
3. Increases in maintenance rate incentives for certain practices involving tree planting, fencing, or water development. Updated marginal pastureland rental rates nationwide to better reflect the market value of these lands. In many cases, rental rates in Missouri increased slightly with the update.
4. An increase of 20 percent on the average widths of filter strips and riparian buffers, to allow farmers to square off field and buffer boundaries for more efficient farming. “We’re pleased to have more incentives to attract more farmers to the program,” says Roger Hansen, State Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Missouri farmers enrolled hundreds of contracts in the continuous signup of CRP, but we have thousands of miles of streams that can be improved with buffers and at the same time offer very fair incentives to farmers,” Hansen says. Currently, over 2,000 Missouri landowners have entered more than 23,000 acres into the program. Sign-up period 22 began April 6 and will continue through September 30. Up to $100 million will be provided in signing and practice bonuses in the current sign-up, with $125 million each in fiscal years 2001 and 2002, says Brad Epperson, State Executive Director for the USDA Farm Service Agency in Missouri. The FSA makes conservation buffer payments to landowners. “Unlike the regular CRP program, the continuous sign-up program allows producers to enroll eligible highly environmentally sensitive land at anytime, without waiting for a sign-up period or competing against other offers,” says Epperson.” And we’re encouraging landowners to consider buffers as part of their conservation system.” Conservation buffers protect streams and rivers by keeping sediment and nutrients from entering the water, providing cleaner drinking water, enhancing recreation, and improving wildlife habitats. For more information contact Renee Cook, USDA-NRCS Resource Conservationist at 636-922-2840 #3. SWCD/NRCS Discrimination Statement: The Soil and Water Conservation District and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or familial status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's Target Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington DC 20250-9410, or call (202)720-594 (voice of TDD). USDA is an equal employment opportunity provider and employer.
