The maximum payment through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program will rise to $450,000 from the current $300,000, said USDA ahead of publishing an interim final rule that would incorporate changes made by the 2014 farm law. The rule is expected to appear in the Federal Register today and is available here digitally. A 60-day comment period would close on Feb 12. EQIP is a cost-sharing program that helps producers reduce runoff from fields and feedlots. The proposal would fold the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program into EQIP and allow EQIP funds to support watershed-wide work through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, created in the new farm law.
EQIP was created in 1997 and has provided nearly $11 billion in cost-share support for work on 232 million acres, said USDA.