Applications accepted for drought emergency measures
According to Steve Stubblefield, the sign-up period for the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) began on April 3 and will end on May 5, 2006.
?The purposes of the ECP are pretty specific,? Stubblefield said. ?Practices are designed to provide water conservation and enhancement measures to permit grazing of range, pasture, or forage by livestock and to supply emergency water in cases where the existing water supply is limited due to drought conditions.
?Only those farms or ranches that had adequate livestock watering systems or facilities or adequate irrigation systems for orchards and vineyards before the drought are eligible for cost-share assistance.?
Cost sharing policies include assistance for practice components such as installation of pipe to another source of water because the primary source is inadequate; storage facilities including tanks and troughs above ground; constructing and deepening wells; installing permanently submersible pumps of a size that will address the needs of livestock on hand at the time of the disaster; and solar panels to provide power to pump water for livestock IF the solar panels are the least costly alternative.
?Cost-sharing is not authorized for items such as pipelines to supply water for vegetable or other short-term crops; livestock water for primarily for barns, recreation, wildlife, or corrals; water facilities primarily for headquarters; for pumps or motors, or for livestock water facilities to provide water on land which will be used for hay or silage,? said the director.
Cost-share is established at 50 percent of the actual cost for all permanent practices and 75 percent of the actual cost for temporary practices. Practices must have an environmental evaluation completed for each request. All applicants must be in compliance with Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation provisions of the Rural Security Act.
Stubblefield encourages anyone interested in the ECP to contact the Warren County Farm Service Center located at 811 Faulkner Springs Road during regular business hours and complete a request for assistance. The FSA County Committee will review each request once all necessary forms have been returned.
Hayden Bradley, Farm Loan Manager with the Farm Service Agency, reminds everyone that FSA makes farm ownership and operating loans to eligible farmers who cannot obtain their financing from other sources. Loans are made to approved socially disadvantaged applicants to buy and operate family-size farms and ranches. A socially disadvantaged (SDA) farmer, rancher, or agricultural producer is one of a group whose members have been subjected to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice because of his or her identity as a member of the group without regard to his or her individual qualities.
Bradley says the farm ownership and operating loans are available and may be made by any lending institution subject to Federal or State supervision (banks, savings and loans, and units of the Farm Credit System) and guaranteed by FSA. Typically, FSA guarantees 90 or 95 percent of a loan against any loss that might be incurred if the loan fails.
Persons interested in either the Emergency Conservation Program drought emergency measures or the loans to socially disadvantaged should contact the local Farm Service Center for additional information.