Articles Tagged with ''Environmental Quality Incentives Program''

Conservation groups and the Biden administration  are betting big that the promise of direct payments to farmers will supercharge their interest in cover crops, a practice relatively few have tried despite documented benefits to soil health, greenhouse emissions and water quality.

The Biden administration and congressional Democrats are aiming to use the agriculture provisions in the Build Back Better bill to jump-start farmers’ work on climate-related farming practices and potentially create permanently higher levels of funding for conservation programs.

Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, a longtime member and former chair of the Senate Ag Committee who took a special interest in the nation’s dairy and organic policy, plans to retire at the end of his current term.

The huge budget reconciliation bill that Democrats are trying to agree on would reshape a large section of the farm bill ahead of schedule, angering farm-state Republicans who fear it will be difficult to alter the dramatically increased spending allocations for conservation programs.

We now have the details on the $28 billion plan that Democrats have developed for funding climate-smart agriculture. According to a summary circulating on Capitol Hill and obtained by Agri-Pulse, the plan features a new $5 billion program to provide direct payments to farmers who plant cover crops.

Agri-Pulse obtained a summary of the long-awaited $28 billion conservation plan that Democrats are circulating on Capitol Hill.

The Department of Agriculture is in touch with Capitol Hill as Democratic leaders work to craft legislation that has the potential to funnel more money into the farm bill and expand the number of producers who could receive funding and assistance for government conservation programs.

More than 200 groups, including a wide range of environmental organizations, are calling on Democratic congressional leaders today to use their reconciliation package to significantly increase funding for conservation programs.

The Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is offering more than $41 million in funds meant to soften the blow of drought in California, Colorado, Oregon and Arizona.

Farm and environmental groups that often disagree on ag policy are urging the Agriculture Department to prioritize climate change in conservation programs and to consider changes to crop insurance that would promote the use of cover crops and other carbon-conserving practices.