Lexington, KY, March 22, 2018. The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Kentucky is encouraging landowners, farmers and producers to visit their local NRCS office now to receive information and apply for conservation technical assistance and possible funding opportunities.
The application process for NRCS’s conservation programs is continuous, but funding selections for specific programs are made throughout the year. For the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Kentucky NRCS is in the process of funding applications from the first batching period which ended November 17, 2017. Kentucky NRCS has announced a second batching cut-off for applications that are eligible within the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI) counties, as well as the statewide Irrigation Water Management (IWM) effort. The second batching cut-off for these two EQIP opportunities will be May 18, 2018.
NWQI assists producers to address high-priority water resource concerns in small watersheds with streams or water bodies that have been targeted based on specific environmental concerns. Kentucky has four NWQI watersheds: Mocks Branch, Clarks Run, Cane Run and Gunpowder Creek. Visit your local NRCS office or visit us on the web at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov to see if your land falls within one of the four watersheds.
The IWM effort is new to Kentucky NRCS this year. The objective of this technical assistance and funding opportunity is to address irrigation efficiency on land that has been irrigated at least two out of the last five years. If you are currently irrigating cropland, and meet the irrigation history requirement, visit your local NRCS office to see if you may be eligible for practices that would increase your irrigation efficiency.