02/07/06 EQIP`ed with an energy break

Ag producers across the country have felt the effects of higher energy costs in their pocketbooks over the past year. And some analysts say fuel prices headed into the summer months could hold steady at best, and increase as the summer progresses. With concerns about the bottom line, farmers and ranchers are looking for any break they can get to offset growing energy costs. Those enrolled in a federal conservation program may be able to get such a break. The reason U.S.D.A's Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or E.Q.I.P., is offering a one time payment adjustment for eligible landowners is the high energy costs have also created hardships for producers in their conservation efforts. KNIGHT: If they're having a practice that is energy intensive, that's a high cost, we'll take a look at that contract and see if we can provide a bonus payment in order to help them make sure they complete that conservation activity and that conservation contract. That's Natural Resources Conservation Service Director Bruce Knight, whose agency oversees E.Q.I.P. He notes that this one time payment is only available to eligible E.Q.I.P. contracted producers that signed their contracts in 2004 or earlier. Knight adds that the one time payment only applies to conservation practices that are completed between March First and June Thirtieth of this year. KNIGHT: It's available in all the various renditions of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. And that includes a special E.Q.I.P. offering that has a Northwest flavoring to it. KNIGHT: We've got a special offering for E.Q.I.P. in the Klamath Basin. We have another one that's a special offering for conservation of water & that's the ground and surface water conservation program. And then the main stem E.Q.I.P. contracts. Knight is candid when he says that which specific projects are eligible for the one time E.Q.I.P. program payment will vary by local U.S.D.A. office. KNIGHT: It's difficult to really identify which things are going to qualify or not. So what I encourage producers to do who have a contract that they think they can wrap up before June Thirtieth that are interested in this, I want to encourage them to go into the local N.R.C.S. office, talk with their district conservationist, and talk to them about their plans, their needs, their desires, and see if they might be eligible for this special supplement to the E.Q.I.P. program.