USDA seeks EQIP applications in R.I.

WARWICK – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is seeking applications from Rhode Island producers for $2.8 million in conservation assistance.
The money – from the NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program – can be used to help manage pastures, manure, irrigation water, invasive species, endangered or threatened species, buffer areas, woodlands, erosion and more. Improvements to water quality and quantity, air quality (reducing odors or chemical drift), or soil health are among the projects to which Rhode Island landowners have devoted past EQIP awards.
EQIP is a voluntary program that provides cost-sharing and incentive payments to help landowners improve environmental quality and agricultural production. To be eligible, an applicant must be raising crops or livestock on eligible land, among other requirements. Croplands, pastures, private non-industrial forests and other farm lands all are eligible.
Nov. 1 is the deadline for submitting requests for EQIP aid in early 2008. •