There are various State and Federal Programs available to landowners through the USDA-NRCS and Hickman County SCD. Some of the practices of these programs assist with cross fencing, pipeline, watering tanks, erosion, wildlife habitat, and water quality.
Agricultural Resources Conservation Fund (ARCF)
The ARCF provides cost-share assistance to Tennessee landowners to install Best Management Practices (BMPs) that reduce agricultural water pollution. This assistance is facilitated primarily through Soil and Water Conservation Districts although Resource Conservation and Development Councils, universities, and other agricultural associations may participate.
A wide range of BMPs are available for cost-share, from those that curtail soil erosion to ones that help to remove pollutants from water runoff from agricultural operations. Landowners may be eligible to receive incentive payments for a portion of the cost of BMP installation. Part of the fund is available for educational projects which raise awareness of soil erosion/water quality problems and promote BMP use.
Participants are encouraged to apply for funds on a watershed-oriented basis, with emphasis on streams and rivers listed on the state’s List of Impaired Waters, as being impaired by agriculture.
For more information please contact Gina Lawson at (931) 716-3012 or by sending an email by using the form below.
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resources concerns. Participants earn CSP payments for conservation performance—the higher the performance, the higher the payment.
Benefits
Through CSP, participants take additional steps to improve the resource conditions on their land—including soil, air and habitat quality, water quality and quantity, and energy conservation.
CSP provides two types of payments through five-year contracts: annual payments for installing new conservation activities and maintaining existing practices; and supplemental payments for adopting a resource-conserving crop rotation. Producers may be able to renew a contract if they have successfully fulfilled the initial contract and agree to achieve additional conservation objectives. Payments are made soon as practical after October 1 of each fiscal year for contract activities installed and maintained in the previous year.
Eligibility
Eligible lands include private and Tribal agricultural lands, cropland, grassland, pastureland, rangeland and nonindustrial private forest land. CSP is available to all producers, regardless of operation size or type of crops produced, in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Caribbean and Pacific Island areas. Applicants may include individuals, legal entities, joint operations or Indian tribes that meet the stewardship threshold for at least two priority resource concerns when they apply. They must also agree to meet or exceed the stewardship threshold for at least one additional priority resource concern by the end of the contract.
Producers must have effective control of the land for the term of the proposed contract. Contracts include all eligible land in the agri- cultural operation.
Additional restrictions and program requirements may apply.
What’s New in CSP
The 2014 Farm Bill increased the program’s focus on generating additional conservation benefits, removed the limitation on the number of nonindustrial private forestland acres that can be enrolled in CSP, and increased flexibility to enroll land coming out of the Conservation Reserve Program.
Payment Limit: A person or legal entity may not receive more than $200,000 during fiscal years 2014 through 2018.
How to Apply
Visit your local USDA Service Center to apply or visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/getstarted.
More Information
For more information visit your local USDA Service Center or www.nrcs.usda.gov/farmbill.
Find Your Local USDA Service Center
Contact: Greg Taylor @ 931-729-2686 x 111 or send him an email by using the form below.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers in order to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits such as improved water and air quality, conserved ground and surface water, reduced soil erosion and sedimentation or improved or created wildlife habitat.
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service offers voluntary Farm Bill conservation programs that benefit agricultural producers and the environment.
Benefits
Eligible program participants receive financial and technical assistance to implement conservation practices, or activities like conservation planning, that address natural resource concerns on their land. Payments are made to participants after conservation practices and activities identified in an EQIP plan of operations are implemented. Contracts can last up to ten years in duration.
Eligibility
Agricultural producers and owners of non-industrial private forestland and Tribes are eligible to apply for EQIP. Eligible land includes cropland, rangeland, pastureland, non-industrial private forestland and other farm or ranch lands.
Socially disadvantaged, beginning and limited resource farmers, Indian tribes and veterans are eligible for an increased payment rate and may receive advance payment of up to 50 percent to purchase materials and services needed to implement conservation practices included in their EQIP contract.
How to apply
Visit your local USDA Service Center to apply or visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/getstarted.
NRCS will help eligible producers develop an EQIP plan of operations, which will become the basis of the EQIP contract.
EQIP applications will be ranked based on a number of factors, including the environmental benefits and cost effectiveness of the proposal.
More Information
For more information visit your local USDA Service Center or www.nrcs.usda.gov/farmbill.
Find your local USDA Service Center
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/tn/contact/local/?cid=stelprdb1101540
What’s New in EQIP
- The former Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program was folded into EQIP.
- Advance payment opportunities now exist for veteran agricultural
- Advance payments for socially disadvantaged, beginning and limited resource farmers, Indian tribes and veterans were raised from 30 percent to 50 percent.
- Payment limitations are set at $450,000 with no ability to waive
For more information please contact Greg Taylor at (931) 729-2686 x 111 or by sending him an email by using the form below.
Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP)
The EWP program provides technical and financial assistance to restore impairments to a watershed. The purpose is to relieve imminent hazards to life and property caused by natural disasters such as floods. In Tennessee the program deals primarily with removing debris that causes restricted flow and stabilizing streambanks that were damaged by flooding. In both cases the damage has to have been caused by a particular event and pose a threat to life and property which in most cases are county roads that are adjacent to a stream.Public and private landowners are eligible for assistance but must be represented by a project sponsor. Sponsors include legal subdivisions of the State, such as a city, county, general improvement district, conservation district, or any Native American tribe or tribal organization as defined in section 4 of the Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
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