3-Week Sign-up for Organic Conversion Program begins May 11th
Contact your local NRCS office as soon as possible!
Organic and Transitional Farmers Restored to Rightful Status in EQIP
Washington, D.C. May 5, 2009 – USDA today announced a special three-
week sign-up for farmers in the process of converting to organic
farming to receive technical and financial assistance through the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a move applauded by
the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and its grassroots
member organizations across the country.
The organic conversion assistance was provided for by the 2008 Farm
Bill but the plan went awry when the Bush Administration issued rules
for the EQIP program just before leaving office which baffled state
and local offices of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS). As a result, in a majority of states organic farmers and
transitioning farmers were simply not being served, in contradiction
of Congress’ intent in the farm bill.
“This was a was a wrong that needed righting, and with today’s
announcement USDA is not only setting it right, but doing so in an
innovative and farmer-friendly manner,” said Aimee Witteman, NSAC
Executive Director. “We thank NRCS and USDA leadership for listening
to the concerns of organic farmers and applaud their new initiative.”
Today’s announcement sets-aside $50 million out of the $1 billion
EQIP program for a special three-week sign-up for farms converting to
organic production, farms expanding their organic production, or
existing organic farms who desire conservation support to reach even
higher levels of environmental performance.
The sign-up period begins Monday, May 11 and goes through Friday, May 29.
Six core conservation practices (conservation crop rotation, cover cropping,
integrated pest management, nutrient management, rotational grazing,
and forage harvest management) are being made available to
transitioning organic farmers on a nationwide basis. Each state may
then also add a variety of “facilitating” conservation practices
specific to the type of agriculture in their region.
“Obviously we would wish to have more than a very short three weeks
to work with our farmer networks to get the word out and get farmers
into local NRCS offices to sign up for this exciting new initiative,”
said Witteman. “We will work quickly to get the word out far and
wide and our member organizations with expertise in organic
agriculture will be helping farmers understand their options under
the new program terms.”
Organic farming has strong environmental benefits for soil and water
quality, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity. In recognition
of this fact, Congress retooled the EQIP program in the 2008 Farm
Bill to provide a general EQIP priority for organic farming in the
program overall as well as a specific EQIP subcomponent for farms
converting in whole or in part to organic farming.
The new initiative addresses the special “organic conversion
assistance” component of EQIP in particular. Funding under the
organic conversion section of the farm bill is capped at not more
than $20,000 per farm per year, and not more than $80,000 per farm in
any 6-year period. Organic farmers may opt to compete in this
special pool, with the tighter payment caps, or may opt instead to
compete in the regular EQIP pool for which the 6-year cap is
$300,000. However, under the terms of the new initiative announced
today, farmers will receive higher payments, relative to conventional
EQIP rates, for five of the six national core practices for organic
conversion option. The higher payment rates reflect the higher
management costs associated with the mandatory three-year organic
transition period and the higher ongoing management costs associated
with organic farming.
“We expect this program to evolve and grow over time,” said
Witteman. “NRCS has made a good faith effort to address the needs of
organic farmers and appears to be willing to make this program even
better on an iterative basis in future years. This is a very
welcomed new day.”
