Assing the environmental quality incentives program

Excerpt

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) has emerged as the most important United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) program providing financial assistance for conservation on working farms and ranches. As of the end of September 2006, there were nearly 140,000 active EQIP contracts covering almost 81 million acres. EQIP, coupled with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Technical Assistance Program, is the centerpiece of the nation's conservation effort on working land. Given how important EQIP has become, it is essential we use it as effectively as possible to address the environmental challenges agriculture faces.

In partnership with Environmental Defense and with help from NRCS, the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) took an in-depth look at EQIP. Our goal was to understand how the program is working and to find ways it might be improved.

The results of our assessment were mixed, but we came away with a sense of optimism about the future of EQIP. We found five practical ways to improve the conservation and environmental results we are getting from the taxpayers' investment in EQIP.

The first opportunity is to improve the criteria and methods used to select participants in EQIP …