Home Farm Policy Menu Making Sense of Federal Programs Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Sustainable Farming Connection Where farmers find and share information. Making Sense of Federal Programs: Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) consolidates many of the conservation programs that existed prior to the 1996 Farm Bill to provide incentives for producers to adopt practices that reduce environmental and resource problems. EQIP can provide technical assistance, cost-share payments, incentive payments and education to crop farms and moderate-scale livestock farms. EQIP contracts will cover 5 to 10 years, with a limitations of $10,000 per year and $50,000 total for multi-year contracts. Half of the funds in the EQIP program will be available to livestock producers and half to crop farms. Individual states, under the guidance of NRCS State Technical Committees, have considerable latitude in deciding how EQIP funds will be spent. States are required to designate priority areas, outlining both high-priority geographic areas and more general statewide natural resource concerns. Funding in each state will be split between priority area projects (65%) and statewide natural resource concerns (35%) for projects outside of a geographic priority area. This funding split will change over time. Top of Page Next: Conservation Farm Option (CFO) Home Farm Policy Menu Making Sense of Federal Programs Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) ©1997 Committee for Sustainable Farm Publishing Please read about our usage permission policy and disclaimer. Send comments, suggestions and questions to the site author: Craig Cramer cdcramer@clarityconnect.com Coded using HoTMetaL Pro 3.0. Best viewed in Netscape 3.0 or later. Please see our credits page for more information. http://sunsite.unc.edu/farming-connection/farmpoli/features/makesens/eqip.htm