NRCS

Fact Sheet
June 2002

Overview

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a volunatry conservation program that promotes agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible National goals. Through EQIP, farmers and ranchers may receive financial and technical help to install or implement structural and management conservation practices on eligible agricultural land.

EQIP was reauthorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Farm Bill). The Natrual Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers EQIP. Funding for EQIP comes from the Commodity Credit Corporation.

How EQIP Works

EQIP activites are carried out according to an EQIP plan of operations developed in conjunction with the producer. Contracts for confined livestock feeding operations require development and implementation of a comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP). This plan is approved by the local onservation district. Practices are subject to NRCS technical standards adapted for local conditions. Farmers and ranchers may elect to use an approved third-party provider for technical assistance.

EQIP applications are accepted throughout the year. NRCS evaluates each applicatoin using a state and locally developed evaluation process. Higher priorities are given to applications that encourage the use of cost-effective conservation practices, address National conservation priorities, and optimize environmental benefits.

State Technical Committees, Tribal representatives, and local working groups convened by the conservation district advise NRCS on implementation of the program to address identified resource needs and concerns.

EQIP may pay up to 75 percent of the costs of certain conservation practices important to improving and maintaining the health of natural resources in the area. Incentive payments may be made to encourage a producer to adopt land management practices, such as nutrient management, manure management, integrated pest management, irrigation water management, and wildlife habitat management, or to develop a CNMP and components of a CNMP. Limited resource farmers and beginning farmers may be eligible for up to 90 percent of the costs of conservation practices.

EQIP offers contracts with a minimum term of one year after implementation of the last scheduled practice and a maximum term of ten years. These contracts provide incentive payments and cost share payments for implementing conservation practices.

Total cost-share and incentive payments are limited to $450,000 per individual over the period of the 2002 Farm Bill, regardless of the number of farms or contracts. Starting in fiscal year 2003, no individual or entity may receive EQIP payments in any crop year in which the individual or entity's average adjusted gross income for the preceding three years exceeds $2.5 million, unless 75 percent of that income is from farming, ranching or forestry interests.

Inside this edition:
Call for Associate Director
Wildfires - Impacts on Watersheds
Defensible Space
Farm Bill 2002

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pg. 5