A lot of information from a variety of places makes its way into my e-mail inbox. One bit of info worth passing along came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NRCS recently announced it was setting aside $50 million for its 2009 Organic Initiative through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. North Carolina will receive more than $1 million under the new initiative.
The program will be available in all states and counties through NRCS district offices. You can find contact information for North Carolina’s NRCS office here. Application deadline is May 29.
The initiative will provide EQIP conservation payments for:
- farmers just beginning to transition to certified organic production;
- farmers already in the process of transitioning to certified organic production;
- existing certified organic farmers who are transitioning additional acres or herds;
- existing certified organic farmers who need to adopt additional conservation measures to
fully address particular natural resource and environmental concerns; and - existing certified organic farmers who want to both transition additional production and
adopt additional conservation measures on existing certified organic ground.
See the NRCS news release here.