Leveraging USDA Conservation for Water Conservation in the Grand Prairie Region

Several United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Bill conservation programs appear to have the capacity to both address the need for water conservation in the Grand Prairie region, and help area farmers be more productive and profitable. Below are some ideas for leveraging some of these programs for water conservation in Arkansas.

The programs can be even more effective if USDA will agree to target its programs to achieve water conservation in this region. Some options:

• the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) could identify water conservation as a priority resource of concern in the Grand Prairie region;
• the NRCS could set aside funds ear-marked for water conservation incentives in the region;
• the USDA Farm Service Agency could identify the area as a conservation priority area with respect to the Conservation Reserve Program;
• the FSA could work with state and local sponsors to create a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program focused on water conservation for this part of Arkansas.   

Environmental Quality Incentives Program

The program provides incentives for farmers to adopt farming and ranching practices and systems that address natural resource concerns, including water conservation. Those incentives typically cover a share of the costs (50 to 75%) of putting in place practices or systems, and in some cases a portion of any lost income that could result to the farmer from adopting the practice. Some practices that EQIP could fund:

Upgrading on-farm irrigation equipment to more efficient technologies (for instance, changing from flood irrigation to center pivot irrigation technology).

Installing water meters on wells and irrigation equipment to better measure water use.

Shifting from water-intensive crops to resource-conserving/water conserving crops (or broadening crop rotations to include some water-conserving crops.)

Transition costs (planting grass, fence and water facilities) to go from crop production to grass-based livestock production.

Transition costs (and foregone income) to shift from irrigated to dryland crop production.

Transition costs (and foregone income) to reduce the amount of irrigation water used.

Building on-farm ponds to store rainfall runoff that could be used for irrigation.

Arkansas was allocated about $23 million in USDA EQIP funds in 2009. The list of EQIP practices funded in Arkansas in 2009 is at http://www.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/news/ar_eqip_09.html

Conservation Stewardship Program

The program rewards farmers who have adopted the highest level of conservation systems, and who are willing to do more to boost soil, water, wildlife, or other conservation values. Farmers looking to sign up for the program must address some of the designated priority resource concerns in their area, so it would be important to have water quantity/water conservation as one of those designated resource concerns in the Grand Prairie area. USDA is in the process of obligating FY 2009 funds for the program, but it is a growing program and soon to be the second largest USDA working lands program behind EQIP.

Wetlands Reserve Program

The Wetlands Reserve Program is used to take currently cropped areas that were formerly wetlands, restore the wetland habitat and provide long-term protection for the wetland. It could be used to take irrigated (or non-irrigated) land out of crop production. The restored wetlands could provide water recharge benefits for area groundwater, in addition to providing wildlife habitat. Arkansas was allocated $6.6 million for the program in 2008.

Conservation Reserve Program

The program pays farmers who agree to take cropland out of production, plant grassland mixtures (and in some cases trees), and leave the land out of production for at least 10 years. There are ‘whole field’ enrollments, which happen when USDA at the national level decides to have one. One key would be to include the Grand Prairie area in the Farm Service Agency’s state priority area, so landowners in the area would get additional points in their signup score.

A drawback of the CRP is it only pays rental rates based on average DRYLAND rental rates in a county, so it is very difficult to get landowners to enroll higher value irrigated land in the program. However, states and USDA have created Conservation Reserve Enhancement Programs to address water conservation and other needs, and they can address the problem by using state or local dollars as leverage to boost the CRP payments up to where they are attractive to farmers with irrigated acres. For example, in Nebraska, where they are trying to take irrigated cropland out of production to address a water-short watershed, the USDA and state department of natural resources created a CREP where state dollars are used to provide an upfront bonus for landowners willing to take irrigated land out of production, and federal CRP dollars are used to pay for a share of the cost of planting native grassland mixes and to pay for ten years worth of rental payments (at dryland rates). The other big advantage of a CREP is that they operate under “continuous signup”, so you don’t have to wait for a national signup. Once the program is approved, a landowner can sign up at any time and the contract can be approved.    

Check out the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service web site for Arkansas, they have some helpful information and an annual report that will explain how the programs are now being used in Arkansas. The reports are at: http://www.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/news/publications.html