New Jersey Agricultural Management Assistance

NRCS administers the conservation provisions while Agricultural Marketing Service and Risk Management Agency implement the production diversification and marketing provisions.

How It Works

Producers may construct or improve water management structures or irrigation structures; plant trees for windbreaks or to improve water quality; and mitigate risk through production diversification or resource conservation practices, including soil erosion control, integrated pest management, or transition to organic farming.

Program At A Glance

• AMA provides financial assistance up to 75 percent of the cost of installing conservation practices.
• Total AMA payments shall not exceed $50,000 per participant for any fiscal year.
• Participants are not subject to Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985.
• Participants are subject to Adjusted Gross Income provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985.
• AMA offers an additional higher cost-share for historically underserved producers.

Who Is Eligible

Producers must:

•  Be engaged in livestock or agricultural production.
• Have an interest in the farming operation associated with the land being offered for AMA enrollment.
• Have control of the land for the term of the proposed contract.
• Be in compliance with the provisions for protecting the interests of tenants and sharecroppers, including the provisions for sharing AMA payments on a fair and equitable basis.
• Be within appropriate payment limitation requirements.

Land Eligibility

• Land on which agricultural commodities or livestock are produced, such as cropland, hayland, pastureland, rangeland, and grassland.
• Land used for subsistence purposes, private non-industrial forestland, or other land on which agricultural products, livestock, or forest-related goods are produced.
• Land on which risk may be mitigated through operation diversification or change in resource conservation practices.

Payment Rates and Terms  

• Statutory annual program payment limitation of $50,000 per applicant per year.
• Individual practice payment rates are calculated between 50% and 75% of the typical cost of labor, materials, and equipment to implement the practice in New Jersey.
• Rates are 25% higher, up to a maximum of 90% of the typical cost for beginning farmer, socially disadvantaged or limited resource producers.
• Projected payments in the approved conservation program contract are based on practice extent and not cost.
• Payments are made after conservation practices are implemented to the standards agreed to in advance.
• The conservation practice standard contains information on why and where the practice is applied, and it sets forth the minimum quality criteria that must be met during the application of that practice in order for it to achieve its intended purpose(s).
• Producers may contribute to the cost of a practice through in-kind sources, including personal or donated labor and use of personal equipment, as long as the value of the contribution is documented.

Practices that Can Receive Funding

Evaluation and Ranking Process

AMA is a competitive program and uses an evaluation and ranking process based on the pre-ranking criteria listed below and questions to assess the needs and cost effectiveness of implementing the conservation plan.

Applicants who meet five to six pre-rank criteria receive consideration as a high priority application. Applicants who meet three to four of the criteria receive consideration as a medium, and those that meet fewer than three are considered a low priority application.

The pre-rank criteria for AMA are:

1. Average annual gross farm sales $81,600 or less for the last three years
2. Total farm acreage of less than 50 of specialty/vegetable crops/pasture OR less than 200 of any other crops
3. USDA program payments less than $10,000 (total) over the last five years
4. Production income more than 75% of the total household income (for the previous tax year)
5. Farm Operating Loan (private or government) used to support the beginning farm operation within the last 10 years
6. Rented acreage totals more than 50% of the total production acreage of the farm

The state objectives of the AMA program in New Jersey include environmental risk factors of the applicant land area, such as distance to bodies of water and pollution potential from nutrients leaching into groundwater.

There are two ranking areas in New Jersey. Applications from Sussex, Warren, Morris, Passaic, Bergen, Hunterdon, Somerset and Union counties are grouped into one area for ranking. The rest of the state is grouped into a second area. The funds awarded to each area are determined by the State Technical Committee on an annual basis.

AMA Program Data, 2009 - Present

NRCS program results data are housed on the RCA Data Viewer.