Conservation officials in California have outlined 10 conservation practices with high potential for benefits that will receive priority incentive payments.
The practices – which would be employed through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program – were identified by the California office of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. According to a release, producers who receive contracts for applying the practices “may now receive incentive payments that could reach as high as 90% of the nationally-identified cost.”
“The 2018 Farm Bill provides for us to work with partners to identify this set of conservation practices that are underutilized relative to California’s natural resource needs,” NRCS State Conservationist Carlos Suarez said. “This allows us more flexibility to tailor our conservation tool chest to offer ‘bigger carrots’ to landowners who incorporate the prioritized practices into their conservation plans.”
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For California, the priority practices are: conservation cover, conservation crop rotation, cover crops, residue and tillage management, mulching, prescribed grazing, nutrient management, pest conservation management systems, upland wildlife habitat management, and forest stand improvement. These 10 practices were selected from 143 different efforts used to address conservation challenges in the state.
Interested parties are encouraged to contact an NRCS field office in California to learn more; funding decisions will be made in early spring.
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