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PA Farm Bureau Stresses Importance Of More Funding, Improving Conservation Programs
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The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau this week discussed the importance of funding conservation programs and practices, while offering suggestions on how some programs could be improved during a public forum hosted by members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture at Ag Progress Days.
“Farmers have long been good stewards of the land and water and are considered the nation’s foremost conservationists. With the assistance of Farm Bill conservation programs, Pennsylvania farmers are improving our soil, enhancing water quality and growing more food and fuel on fewer acres of land,” said PFB President Carl T. Shaffer.
One program that has been a huge success is the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), which provides farmers financial and technical assistance to address threats to soil and water on their land.
In Pennsylvania, this program has enhanced soil quality on more than 53,000 acres, increased water quality on more than 61,000 acres, improved more than 11,000 acres of grazing and forest land and has helped more than 80 farms prepare and implement Certified Nutrient Management Plans.
“EQIP is clearly a program that benefits farmers, the environment and local communities with its primary emphasis on water quality, soil conservation, alternative energy systems and animal feeding operation requirements. EQIP funding should continue to be prioritized and distributed at the state and local level to build on the positive results of the program,” added Shaffer.
Farm Bureau is calling for changes to the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), which helps mitigate soil erosion through stream bank fencing, stream crossings, tree plantings, riparian buffers and the retirement of highly erodible land. PFB suggests three areas of reform: lowering land rental rates to more accurately reflect local land rent values; limiting a farm’s enrollment of this program to no more than 25 percent of tillable acres; and limiting a county’s enrollment to no more than 15 percent of tillable acres in that county.
“In some instances, entire farms or large tracts of farms are entered into land retirement programs. Retiring entire farms into CREP makes it difficult for new and beginning farmers to enter the industry. Most young farmers do not have the capital to purchase land, so they rent land for several years in order to build up the necessary capital. In many areas of the state, CREP land rental rates far exceed the local going rate for agricultural land rent. In these instances, the government is competing against the next generation of farmers, giving a bad reputation to an otherwise helpful and worthy program,” continued Shaffer.
Farm Bureau also supports the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative, a new Farm Bill program designed to provide technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers to implement conservation practices minimizing nutrient and sediment losses, thus restoring, preserving and protecting local water quality.
According to the state’s office of Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), farmers across Pennsylvania have submitted nearly 700 applications for the program, indicating that farmers want to utilize available resources to improve water and soil quality.
In closing, Mr. Shaffer recognized the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and Congressman Tim Holden for reinforcing the positive activities taking place on Pennsylvania farms and the entire Chesapeake Bay Watershed by moving the Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization and Improvement Act forward in the House.
“This commonsense bill builds on the water and soil quality initiatives already taking place on farms and utilizes the limited amount of federal resources where taxpayers will get the best result for their dollar in reducing nutrient and sediment runoff,” concluded Shaffer.
A complete copy of Shaffer's testimony is available online.
Virginia Will Spend Surplus On Roads, Chesapeake Bay Cleanup
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8/23/2010 |
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