There’s still no word about what’s going on with the next farm bill, even among those leading the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) and Resource Conservation District (RCD) of Monterey County’s local work group meeting on Sept. 18.
Ramon Salazar, district conservationist with the NRCS, presented the priorities and programs funded by the 2018 Farm Bill, a major federal agricultural spending bill passed every five years. The most recent farm bill was extended for one year and is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2025.
Under the current bill, a total of 209 contracts are funded in Monterey County, 149 of which are currently active. Over $11 million has been allocated to projects, with $4.5 million in active contracts. The work group’s aim is to flag the upcoming application deadline on Nov. 21 for federal assistance opportunities for the coming fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2025-Sept. 30, 2026).
NRCS programs funded by the farm bill include the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Stewardship Program, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, as well as conservation innovation grants. These programs prioritize funding projects to enhance and protect natural resources, typically through multi-year contracts that last around two to five years.
EQIP is NRCS’ flagship conservation program, which aims to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners integrate conservation efforts into working ag lands, and it receives the largest share of the funding with more than $10 million from the current farm bill.
Countywide, the top conservation practices by funding requests have been cover cropping, improving soil organic matter, irrigation, water quality and erosion control, Salazar told the group. “We’ve been getting a lot of requests for compost application for farmers to improve their soil quality,” he said.
What will be prioritized in the next federal farm bill remains unknown.
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