Conservation Access for Every Farmer

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at the 21st Annual Small Farmers Conference, Marketing and Trade Show, Albany, GA
February 13, 2004

Thank you, Shirley (Sherrod). Hello, everyone. I want to thank Ralph (Paige) and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives / Land Assistance Fund for inviting me to be one of your speakers. It is a pleasure to share the podium with Assistant Secretary Parker, Jerry Pennick, and Administrator Little.

These are times of great opportunity for conservation in Agriculture, and USDA is committed to making sure that every farmer in America can benefit from the opportunities that are available. Today, I want to talk briefly about how all of you here today can use Federal conservation programs to help reach your conservation goals and what NRCS has been doing to open our broad range of services more fully to beginning, small, limited-resource, and minority farmers.

The Conservation Portfolio

First, let’s look at what is available. The primary tool – the foundation, if you will – of our conservation effort is Conservation Technical Assistance provided by NRCS offices throughout the country. It is through Conservation Technical Assistance that we can help you assess your conservation needs, help you develop priorities for your conservation activities, and help you decide what conservation programs will best help you reach your conservation goals – and maintain or improve your profitability.

Conservation Technical Assistance is the way to focus on your overall goals and then find the widest range of opportunities to help you reach those goals. So, if you do not already have a conservation plan for your operation, I encourage you to go to your local USDA Service Center and begin the planning process. It should pay off in the future, both in terms of good farming and good conservation.

I know there have been times, even recent times, when some USDA offices around the country did not provide service to all segments of the agriculture community on an equal basis. For quite a while now, we have been committed to changing that situation, and I am happy to say we have made significant improvement.

The 2002 Farm Bill

As you have probably heard, the 2002 farm bill represents a level of investment in conservation that has not been present in any previous farm bill -- an increase of more than $17 billion in conservation spending over ten years.

As President Bush said when he signed the farm bill, “This bill offers incentives for good conservation practices on working lands. For farmers and ranchers, for people who make a living on the land, every day is Earth Day. There are no better stewards of the land than people who rely on the productivity of the land.”

I am happy to say that Congress passed a Consolidated Appropriations Act last month, implementing President Bush’s commitment to fully fund the farm bill this fiscal year. The President signed the bill on January 23, which cleared the way for us to invest nearly $1.5 billion for farm bill programs during the 2004 fiscal year.

More recently, President Bush submitted his 2005 budget request to the Congress. He has increased the funding available for implementing farm bill programs by nearly a quarter of a billion dollars for fiscal year 2005. And that means more opportunities for farmers and ranchers, including limited resource, beginning, small, and minority operators.

Conservation Security Program

One new provision of the farm bill I want to mention today is the Conservation Security Program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act includes $41 million for CSP in 2004, which will allow us to sign about 3,000 contracts. The President’s 2005 budget request includes $209 million for CSP, which will allow us to sign an additional 12,000 contracts.

The proposed rule for CSP appeared in the January 2 edition of the Federal Register, with a 60-day period for public comment. We are holding public forums around the country to give all interested parties a chance to comment on the proposed rule. I hope some of you had a chance to attend one of our sessions here in the South in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Florida, or Mississippi. The remaining sessions are in the Midwest and the West. Even if you can’t attend a public forum, you can still submit your comments in writing by mail or e-mail.

The proposed rule is just that – a proposal. NRCS will study every comment and come up with a final rule that incorporates all of the best ideas from these sessions and other forums. One thing I can promise is that we will implement this program in a size-neutral manner.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program

I would like to mention the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, EQIP – our largest program. Last year, we approved about 32,000 EQIP contracts, for a total of more than $483 million. You can add another $200 million to that total for this year.

As any farmer knows, cost-share programs only work if you have the financial resources to invest. That is why EQIP provides for cost share of up to 90 percent for limited resource and beginning farmers. The challenge for NRCS is how to ensure that we implement EQIP and our other programs in a manner that will be fair to all of our customers. Our program and practices must be reviewed to ensure that they work for small and large farmers.

Outreach

When President Bush signed the 2002 farm bill, we already had enough applications on hand to run most of the programs for a couple of years -- maybe even the duration of the farm bill. But we went ahead and made every effort to be sure every farmer and rancher in America knew about the features of the farm bill, so that everyone would have an opportunity to participate.

Last year at NRCS, we allocated nearly $1.4 million for outreach efforts through efforts in cooperation with groups such as 1890 institutions, minority producer organizations, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, and the National Council for Science and the Environment.

We conducted a series of outreach sessions around the country, specifically intended to inform small, limited resource, beginning, and minority farmers. The large producers have excellent channels of communication and have no trouble finding out what opportunities are available to them. But we have to reach out more effectively to farmers who have fewer recourses; so that they get the information they need to succeed.

Ralph, I salute you for your efforts, to assist us in spreading the word. I want you to know that NRCS will continue to improve its outreach efforts until we can be sure that every farmer has equal access to information on conservation opportunities. Equal access to information is an important part of equal access to programs. For example, due to these efforts, in Georgia, NRCS was able to award 13 percent of the EQIP funds and 13 percent of the Grassland Reserve Program funds to limited resource farmers.

Partners

Making sure all farmers have access to farm bill conservation programs and other NRCS services is a big job, and more important than ever because of the historic level of investment in conservation. We are working more closely than ever with our traditional partners, such as the conservation districts, State agencies, resource conservation and development councils, and others. And we are adding new partners to help do the work of conservation.

As a Federal agency, NRCS has a mandate to provide the widest possible access to our programs and services. As you know, we have not always lived up to that mandate. But we are doing better, and we are working hard to make that mandate a reality everywhere and in every way.

That mandate also reaches our partners. As I remind our partner organizations on a regular basis, the obligation to provide equal access to programs and services extends everywhere the Federal dollar goes. Just as USDA must strive to do better, so must our partners – State agencies, Conservation Districts, Resource Conservation and Development Areas.

One result of this increased emphasis on diversity within the partnerships is that NRCS has agreed to work with several partner organizations to present diversity awards. These awards would recognize outstanding contributions to diversity within each organization – and stimulate others in the organizations to greater efforts. The awards would be presented at each organization’s annual meeting or other suitable partnership meeting.

I am looking forward to having an award process in place within a few months.

Conclusion

My remarks today add up to two important concepts – opportunity and access.

The farm bill and the President’s budget provide the opportunity. There is tremendous opportunity across an entire portfolio of conservation programs, all tied together by conservation technical assistance. The opportunity is there in the form of an additional $17 billion over ten years.

Access comes through our programs and services, outreach, partnerships, and your efforts. NRCS will continue to conduct vigorous outreach activities to be sure all segments of the agriculture community know about the opportunities that are available and how to access them. We will continue to work with the conservation partners to be sure that access extends everywhere the Federal dollar goes and that all producers have access to the entire portfolio of conservation tools.

Together this adds up to conservation access for every farmer. To echo Mr. Parker, “We ain’t going to turn around.”

Thank you.