06/20/06 EQIP in Idaho

The NRCS has begun to notify Idaho producers who have been awarded 2006 EQIP, Environmental Quality Incentive Program contracts. State Conservationist Rich Sims says producers can start to share in more than 13 million dollars in Idaho funding this year through EQIP. SIMS "Sign the contracts and then they can start planning with their contractors or if they plan to do the work themselves to look at those wheat fields and start putting the practices on the ground if that's where they decide to go this year." This cost share program is supposed to entice producers to apply conservation practices on their land. Sims says it has been popular all along. In 1996 Idaho was getting about two and a half million dollars in EQIP funding but that all changed with the 2002 Farm Bill. SIMS "Congress saw fit, the President signed it to increase those monies by 70 percent and for our state it went from 2.5 million up to average right around 13 million dollars to provide conservation for the ground." In fact, EQIP spending for the entire nation is near the one billion dollar mark. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott