Taking Advantage of the USDA Conservation Programs: the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Security Program

Michael Brewer, IPM Program, Dept. Entomology, Michigan State Univ. (email: brewerm@msu.edu)
Rufus Isaacs, Dept. Entomology, Michigan State Univ.
Eric Hanson, Dept. Horticulture, Michigan State Univ.
Annemiek Schilder, Dept. Plant Pathology, Michigan State Univ.

Growers are very much aware and have been affected by environmental issues as identified and enforced by federal and state agencies. However they may not be aware that the 2002 Farm Bill increased federal conservation program support for growers to meet environmental challenges on their lands in production, with a substantial increase in funds authorized. Also as stated in the Farm Bill, environmental and farm health should be compatible goals of USDA conservation programs. Along with other purposes, the Farm Bill and legislative conference report encourage program funds to be used to assist specialty crop grower conservation needs and their pest and nutrient management challenges.

We describe here The Conservation Programs and how they can be useful to growers, give information on the Successful Use of the Programs, provide information on The Application Process for those without experience in dealing with Farm Bill programs, and list Additional Contact Information and Web-Resources as you consider if these programs are right for you.

The Conservation Programs: USDA NRCS has established two voluntary federal conservation programs that are designed to assist growers with conservation on lands in production. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) was established in 1996. It is designed to assist growers with the expense of initiating conservation practices, like pest and nutrient management, to address important resource conservation concerns on the farm (such as groundwater and surface water protection, and air quality). And as a result of continued use of these practices, EQIP aims to curb the need for regulatory program enforcement to meet conservation goals. Growers can benefit from the program by obtaining funds to implement practices like pest management, nutrient management, cover crop and field border plantings, irrigation water management, and plant residue management, and make structural improvements like agricultural chemical containment facilities. The practices adopted must address one or more identified resource concerns, such as groundwater protection (do you have leachable soils?) and riparian protection (do you have potential for agricultural water runoff?). Local district conservationists (they are your local representatives of USDA NRCS) may be especially helpful in this area. They are well aware of their district’s resource concerns, and they can help identify practices that can address key resource concerns and aid your farm’s economic outlook. EQIP is available in all counties in the United States each year. For program information, go to http://www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip.html (Michigan site) or contact your local NRCS office.

The Conservation Security Program (CSP) was established in 2002. CSP assists growers already using conservation practices with the expense of their continued use and provides additional financial incentives to increase conservation efforts. This includes maintaining ongoing IPM and nutrient management efforts and implementing additional techniques. CSP is available on a watershed rotation basis each year. For the 2006 program year, CSP comes to the Maple River watershed and the Boardman/Charlevoix River watershed of Michigan. These watersheds include portions of Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Otsego, Clinton, Gratiot, Ionia, Montcalm and Shiawassee counties. For more information, go to http://www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/csp.html (Michigan site). Watersheds in the program in other states can be found by visiting the state’s home NRCS web page.

Successful Use of the Programs: In Michigan, the MSU IPM Program and affiliated departments and MSU Extension units, commodity groups, and agricultural consultants worked together to help increase use of these programs by growers interested in pest and nutrient management. First, proposals designed to enhance program usefulness in implementing pest and nutrient management, with a focus on IPM implementation, were presented to the NRCS advisory committees. As a result:
Beginning the 2004 EQIP program year, IPM tactics sponsored in the NRCS pest management standard can be used to address ground water, surface water, air quality, and soil health concerns (previously, only the first two concerns were recognized). This will strengthen growers’ applications to obtain EQIP financial incentives to use IPM.
Beginning program year 2005, financial incentives available in EQIP to sponsor grower adoption of IPM increased substantially: $60/acre for fruit/nursery/Xmas tree/sod, $30/acre for vegetables, $4/acre for field crops (previously, $20, $10, and $3/acre). Beginning program year 2006, another IPM financial incentive to remove neglected orchards will be implemented: $250/acre for removal of neglected planting (current language allows for apple orchard removal). Nutrient management assistance is $10/acre for specialty crops.
For CSP, pest management and nutrient management were adopted as two of the practice enhancements. The pest management enhancement in CSP contains separate components, each with its own financial incentive: manage field border and strips for beneficial organisms ($35 to 55/acre), conservation crop rotation to break pest cycles ($8/acre), use reduced-risk pesticides on fruit, vegetables, and other specialty crops ($20/acre), use precision pesticide application technologies ($3/acre), enhance pest management record keeping ($3/acre), manage pests by non-chemical or pest avoidance means ($5/acre). There are also 9 separate pars to nutrient management which capture a broad range of applications for specialty crops.

Second, in five Michigan counties (Oceana, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Antrim, and Ottawa) NRCS, MSUE, and agricultural consultants worked together to assist fruit, vegetable, and nursery growers to participate in the programs. Consultants actively worked with growers and NRCS staff to collect farm data, and to determine if conservation efforts through implementing IPM and other NRCS practices were needed (data included pesticide and fertilizer application history, farm lay outs, pest history). As a result: In 2004, 46 EQIP applications were submitted in our pilot counties through the private consultant/MSU/NRCS teams and all were approved: more than double the number of contracts approved in 2002. About 10% of funds released will support IPM implementation in the pilot counties (see table). In 2005, 73 EQIP applications were approved in our pilot counties. About 15% of funds supporting IPM implementation in pilot counties (see table). We saw growers adopting a variety of IPM tactics (see next section). For CSP, Oceana County was selected as one of the counties to participate in the program in 2005. About 102 applications were approved, which was approximately one-third on all contracts in 14 counties in the 2005 program.


Table. Funding patterns in EQIP. Beginning in 2003, we proposed program modifications to make the program more attractive to growers and worked in local teams in Oceana, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Antrim, and Ottawa MI counties to encourage grower participation. There has been an over 5-fold increase in funds devoted to IPM implementation statewide from when the project started. Grower requests for IPM support now represents about 15% of funds in a contract in our pilot counties compared to about 1% statewide in 2002. The ag chem. containment facility practice is also shown, the facilities are used to store pesticides and fertilizers.

* Indicates the % of funds in grower contracts devoted to pest management in our pilot counties.

The Application Process: If you have had little experience with the Farm Bill, NRCS, or government conservation programs, taking advantage of these opportunities may seem challenging. The following four steps are intended to be a grower-friendly aid that helps you successfully negotiate the steps to applying for EQIP incentives (also available at http://www.ipm.msu.edu/farmbill/start.htm).
Overview of basic steps
1) Contact your NRCS office in your local USDA Service Center
2) Work with NRCS to complete a site specific conservation plan for your farm
3) Complete the application
4) Submit application to NRCS
Step One – Contact your county NRCS office and tell them you want to apply for EQIP. They will schedule a time for you to meet with NRCS staff to start your application. The application process is confidential. As part of this initial step, the NRCS District Conservationist or a conservation planner will help you fill out a pre-application form to see if you are eligible for the program. The pre-application form asks basic questions about your farm. You fill in your name, county and the date. Then you circle the correct answers to the seven questions on the form. Be sure to submit the pre-application form directly to the District Conservationist as soon as possible, because the date of submission will be used as part of the selection process if more funds are requested than are available.

Step Two- Work with NRCS to complete a site-specific plan for your farm. The District Conservationist or a conservation planner working with the District Conservationist will come to your farm to help you identify practices that are eligible for EQIP or similar programs. You and the planner will develop a plan outlining conservation practices to implement. The goal is to work together to design a plan that makes sense for your farm, both for resource conservation and maintaining farm production.
For your meeting you will want to have available:
• Pesticide and nutrient management records from the past three years
• A farm layout or aerial photo of the farm
• A list of areas where you have conservation concerns
• A list of crops and rotation schedules, if applicable

The District Conservationist will help you identify practices that make sense for your farm and will help you identify which resources (such as soil, water, air, etc.) those practices will address. In doing so he or she will also help you determine whether your application is likely to have priority for funding under EQIP. As a general rule, growers who are able to apply multiple practices that improve more than one resource have a higher priority for funding. Here are some practices in small fruit production to consider for your conservation plan. You may think of other practices that will also qualify.

Small fruit production
Pest management
Nutrient management
Ag chemical containment facility
Field border
Critical area planting
Shelterbelt establishment
Windbreak renovation
Riparian buffer/filter strips
Heavy use area protection
Cover crops
Riparian buffer/ Filter strips

For pest management, many IPM tactics can be supported by the financial incentives available in EQIP and
CSP. For EQIP, the following IPM techniques may qualify for EQIP financial incentives ($60 per acre) to
improve ground and surface water protection and air quality protection.
- Adding electronic canopy sensing technology to sprayers and use of shielded sprayers to reduce drift potential.
- Conversion from chemical weed control to flamer/steamer weed control.
- Conversion or elimination of pesticides with high to moderate potential for ground or surface water contamination to pesticides with low risk potential.
- Removal of wild host plants adjacent to bushes.
- Utilize disease inoculum reduction strategies.
- Provide nesting structures for insectivorous birds, bats and other predators.
- Pesticide resistance management, including incorporation of neonicotinoids and pyrethroids into programs for control of insect pests.
- Use of organic mulches beneath bushes to suppress weeds and reduce herbicide use
- Use of rotary hoeing beneath bushes to reduce weeds and reduce herbicide use

For nutrient management, the following techniques may quality in EQIP and CSP to address ground and
surface water protection (consult with your NRCS district conservationist for details):
- Tissue analysis and soil testing to monitor nutrition.
- Split applications of nitrogen to improve use efficiency.
- Use of manure, compost, or other organic nutrient sources
- Cover crop establishment in row middles to promote soil health
- Legume establishment in row middles to supply nitrogen .

Step Three - Complete the application
Once you have developed the conservation plan for your farm, you and the District Conservationist will complete your application. If you are a Limited Resource Producer or Beginning Farmer you are eligible for higher payments.

Step Four - Submit the application to NRCS
Once you have completed your application, it will be ranked with other applications in the state based on the number of points it has received. The NRCS District Conservationist will contact you about whether or not your application is funded. If your application has been accepted, you will complete and sign a contract stating the payments and your obligations.

Additional Contact Information and Web-Resources: Personnel with the USDA NRCS are stationed at USDA Service Center offices throughout Michigan and other states. In Michigan, An NRCS staff and office directory is available on the Michigan NRCS website at: http://www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov/contact. Click on "Find a Service Center" on the left side of the web page. USDA Service Centers for other states can be found at your state’s NRCS web site, and your local USDA Service Center NRCS field office is also listed in the government section of most telephone directories. The complete ‘How to’ guide that can be found at: http://www.ipm.msu.edu/farmbill/start.htm.

Acknowledgements. Information in this document was identified by working with USDA NRCS, MSUE, MDA, and commodity group representatives. Joy Landis, MSU IPM Program, maintains the web site. The ‘How to’ Guide for applying to EQIP was developed by Mike Brewer, Joy Landis (MSU IPM), and Larry Elworth, Center for Agricultural Partnerships. This initiative was supported in part by USDA CSREES, Project GREEEN, the Joyce Foundation through Center for Agricultural Partnerships, and the Environmental Protection Agency through American Farmland Trust and the Center for Agricultural Partnerships.

See also: http://www.ipm.msu.edu/farmbill.htm