Funds Available for Agricultural Water Conservation

EAST LANSING, Feb. 14, 2007 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made $380,000 in funding available to assist agricultural producers in conserving ground and surface water.

The funds will be made available through the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Under the Michigan Ground and Surface Water Conservation Program, incentives payments will be paid to agricultural producers to implement any of three specified water conservation activities that apply to irrigation efficiency and reuse of water by dairy operations. Producers interested in applying for the incentive payments should apply at their local USDA Service Center by March 15.

The water conservation activities selected for funding under the Ground and Surface Water Conservation Program include irrigation system evaluation and upgrade, irrigation management and dairy plate cooler water reuse. Under the irrigation actives funding producers receive per acre payments for improving the efficiency of their irrigation systems. Under the dairy plate cooler water reuse activity, dairy farmers receive payments based on the amount of water saved by reusing 100 percent of their cooler plate water for livestock watering or other related uses.

For more information about the Michigan Ground and Surface Water Conservation Program contact your local USDA Service Center or go to www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip.html.


 

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