Page 45 - Ebook_CoverCrops2022_Final

Underfunded .conservation .programs . from 240,418 acres to 1,120,311 acres, accord-
underpin .progress .to .date ing to ERS. EQIP funding for cover crops
increased tenfold.
About one-third of the acreage planted with
cover crops in 2018 received a financial assis- Payments under EQIP vary based on the
tance payment from either federal, state, or state, according to the ERS report. For exam-
other programs that support cover crop adop- ple, in the 2017 fiscal year, the median per-
tion, according to a study by USDA’s Economic acre payment for the program in Illinois was
Research Service. $62.33, while the payment for Delaware’s
program was $92.27.
Jay Baxter, who farms near Georgetown, Del-
aware, said federal programs are especially The report also states that funding for cover
helpful to farmers who are on the fence about crops through EQIP has increased from $7 mil-
a practice such as cover cropping. They may lion in 2005 to over $155 million in 2018.
be deterred by the financial risk or the added In 2019, the Trump administration was pushed
expense of “crop seed or hiring someone to do to make some changes in EQIP that would fur-
the application or hiring another person to plant ther incentivize cover crops, including by easing
in the fall,” he said. limitations on grazing cover crops for soil health
But the programs are chronically underfunded, and wildlife benefits. USDA didn’t go as far as
including EQIP, which provides cost-share assis- cover crop advocates wanted, but the depart-
tance for new equipment and practices, and the ment left the door open to considering further
Conservation Stewardship Program, which can changes to the EQIP regulations.
provide annual payments under five-year con- Under CSP, producers who are already planting
tracts to producers who undertake conservation cover crops could be eligible through the pro-
practices. gram to shift to enhanced cover crop systems,

Citing USDA data, the Environmental Working plant more diverse mixes or focus on targeting a
Group, a research and advocacy group, said certain environmental benefit, according to the
there is a $2 billion unfunded backlog for con- ERS report.
servation programs, including EQIP and CSP. The total cover crop acreage receiving CSP pay-
Some 87,000 farmers this year with valid EQIP ments increased from more than 350,000 acres
applications couldn’t get funding, the group said. in 2010 to over 2 million acres in 2015, accord-

Under EQIP, producers can get funding for ing to ERS.
cover crops in fields in which they don’t grow Clay Pope, a farmer near Loyal, Oklahoma,
them already. Cover crops can be included in an who has participated in CSP, cautions that it’s
EQIP contract for a maximum of five years on going to take time to shift more growers into
the same field and farmers who receive EQIP practices such as cover crops.
payments cannot harvest their cover crop for “You can’t turn an aircraft carrier on a dime,”
grain or seed. In certain states, they may be he said. “So giving the help to allow people to
allowed hay or graze the cover crop to feed it to make those adjustments, to figure these things
their livestock.
out, to sort through how you can benefit … I
Cover crops are the top practice funded by think that’s a huge piece of it.”
EQIP. Cover crop acreage funded through
EQIP quadrupled between 2006 and 2016

www.Agri-Pulse.com 45