Conservation for Soybean Producers: Opportunity and Flexibility

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service,
at the American Soybean Association Board of Directors Annual Meeting
Washington, DC
March 31, 2003


Thank you, Bart (Ruth). It is a pleasure to be here today to talk about the next golden age of conservation and it means for soybean producers. Today, I would like to give you an overview of the new farm bill, talk a bit about what USDA and the agriculture community need to do to successfully implement the bill, and, finally suggest a few things soybean producers and producer groups can do to get the most out of the new farm bill.


FARM BILL PROGRAM RUN DOWN

The new farm bill represents the largest investment in conservation on America’s working lands in farm bill history – an increase of about 18-1/2 billion dollars over ten years. Implementing the conservation provisions of the new farm bill is our number-one priority.

The new farm bill provides a great deal of flexibility for America’s farmers and ranchers. It provides opportunities for more farmers overall, and more flexibility to address unique local conservation issues. For example, I know many soybean producers are interested in opportunities to do more in the areas of conservation tillage and buffer strips. The farm bill can help in these areas. It provides ways both to improve our environment and to enhance profitability. And, it provides resources to help producers meet regulatory requirements such the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.

Our approach to conservation is to use farm bill programs as a portfolio of tools to help farmers and ranchers, including soybean producers, meet your environmental and business goals. The President’s 2003 budget amendment and his 2004 budget proposal reflect his commitment to conservation.

The biggest single program administered by NRCS is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The farm bill provides an extra $5.5 billion for EQIP. This fiscal year EQIP will have nearly 700 million dollars. We received 1,200 comments on the proposed EQIP rule, and we are in the process of analyzing those comments.

There is more money in EQIP each year under the new farm bill, which means additional opportunities for producers to reach their goals for preventing soil erosion and improving air and water quality, among other objectives. Even though livestock producers will get 60% of the EQIP funds, the pie is getting larger, giving soybean producers more opportunities as well.

Other conservation programs show similar increases.

There is $360 million for the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program over six years.

Several programs protect working farmland and ranchland, including the Farmland Protection Program and the Grassland Reserve Program.

FPP will have nearly $600 million over six years. FPP is a great way for soybean producers near urban areas to ensure that their farms remain as farms for future generations. By the way, FPP will now be called the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program, which is a more accurate name.

The Grassland Reserve Program will have a quarter of a billion dollars in mandatory spending to enroll up to two million acres of grazing land.

In addition, the Wetlands Reserve Program has significant increases in its acreage cap. The Secretary released $275 million in WRP funds last fall, and we were able to enroll more than 200,000 acres. This year, we will enroll nearly a quarter of a million acres.

The Conservation Security Program will provide payments for producers who have historically practiced good stewardship on their agricultural lands and incentives for those who want to do more. We published the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on CSP the middle of last month, inviting comment on 15 important questions about the program. The comment period closes in a few days, so now is the time to make your views known. We are determined to create a program that works, so it may take some time to iron out the details.

One last feature of the new farm bill that is of interest to soybean producers is that it provides for confidentiality of case file data and location of National Resources Inventory data points.


OUR STRATEGIC PLAN

So, what have we at USDA and in the agriculture industry been doing to implement the farm bill, and what do we need to do in the future to ensure its success?

The farm bill meant release of about $700 million for conservation programs late in the Federal fiscal year. We funded more than 19,000 EQIP applications with $414 million in new farm bill money and more than 800 applications for WRP, with $274 million.

At the same time, new applications started rolling in. Today, we not only have enough applications to invest the 2003 farm bill money – we are back in the position of having a backlog of applications.

EQIP alone now has a backlog of 1.4 billion dollars nationwide. WRP has 2,800 pending applications, amounting to 475,000 acres. FPP has more than 100 million dollars in pending offers for easements.

IMPLEMENTING OUR CONSERVATION STRATEGY

There is more to implementing the farm bill than just getting the word out and accepting applications as they come in the door. To be truly effective, we need to be more strategic in three major areas: getting the word out, making sure the applications we approve meet local and national priorities, and leveraging Federal dollars to get the most conservation done.

GETTING THE WORD OUT

The first thing we need to do is increase our effort to get the word out. We have reached a lot of producers with the farm bill message, but have we reached them all? I don’t think so. The word is getting out, but it has not reached everyone who needs to know. It might be fair to say we have reached those who are well tuned in to our usual – and even modern – ways of getting the word out. But, we have not done enough to reach other audiences -- especially the traditionally underserved farmers and ranchers, including minorities, women, and beginning farmers.

The farm bill is designed to extend opportunities for every farmer and rancher to reach his or her conservation goals. To make that potential a reality, we have to reach out to every farmer and rancher. So, outreach is one of our strategies.

FOCUSING ON CONSERVATION GOALS

The second thing we have to do is focus more on conservation goals and less on programs. We must move beyond numbers of applications to consider how to get the best and most conservation done. We need to look at how applications relate to a producer’s overall conservation goals. And we need to look at how applications relate to national and local conservation priorities.

The key to reaching individual and local conservation goals is to keep decisions at the local level. If you don’t think local goals match your individual goals, you have a chance to make your views known.

As Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley says, we are keeping program rules “lean and local,” which means the rules are simple and leave the decision making to local officials.

GETTING MORE CONSERVATION DONE

The third thing we have to do is stretch our resources to get as much conservation done as we can, as widely as we can, rather than settling for getting the dollars out there. The foundation of our effort is to offer incentives to producers who practice conservation.

Part of the idea of incentives and cost share is to make it possible for producers to undertake conservation practices that they could not normally afford to do. Another part of the idea of incentives is to leverage tax dollars to get more conservation done.

Our strategy should be to use incentives properly and not treat them as entitlements. We need to look at local farm and ranch communities to see how incentives and cost shares operate. The maximum 70% cost share specified for some programs will be the exception, rather than the rule.

We need to look at other sources of funds to see how to leverage the Federal dollar. The Federal government and the producers can get more conservation done when the cost is shared several ways. We cannot simply accept the first applications through the door, but must approve the applications that objectively rank as having the potential of doing the most conservation work. We cannot award all of the largest contracts, because there are smaller operations that need the incentives.

We have to do what it takes to gain the participation of traditionally underserved segments of the producer community.


CONCLUSION

To summarize, let me say that to be successful in the long run, we need to be more strategic. We need to make sure every farmer and rancher knows about the farm bill and has a chance to participate. We need to focus more on overall conservation goals and less on program implementation. But, beyond local and national priorities, conservation activities on any given farm or ranch should meet the conservation goals of the owner and operator.

The number and complexity of conservation programs can be overwhelming. That is why many producers find it helpful to start with some good old fashioned NRCS technical assistance, prior to deciding what programs will work on their land.

The President has requested the resources we need to work with new and existing partners and the flexibility to take on new projects. The more partners we have, the more conservation we can do.

By being open to new ways of working and flexible in who you work with as conservation partners, you can get even more conservation done on the land. By working together to make the right choices, we can make the next golden age of conservation a reality.

Thank you.

(Text is as written, delivered remarks may differ)