EQIP Rules Published In The Federal Register

The final rule for the USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program, EQIP is now published in the Federal Register.

"This final rule is just really what I would call a tweaking of the wording, but not any substantially new regulation coming through the final rule than what people actually saw in the interim final rule."

Which was published in December. According to acting Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Kevin Norton, the EQIP updates stem from the 2018 Farm Bill.

"The integration and new EQIP incentives practices those are similar to the conservation stewardship program where we can adopt practices incrementally instead of the whole farm concept. So we'll be rolling that out this year."

As well as requiring NRCS to offer an advanced payment option to historically under-served producers, as well as expand the EQIP-funded Conservation Innovation Grant Program to include both on-farm conservation innovation and soil health demonstration trials.

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