NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RFD News) — Farmers looking to add cover crops to their operations may have another option for financial support.
The Farmers for Soil Health Coalition is continuing efforts to expand cover crop adoption while helping producers offset some of the costs tied to conservation practices.
Ben West with the coalition says one of the biggest priorities was creating a program that farmers could enroll in quickly without a complicated process.
“A big chunk of our program is focused on cover crops, and that’s what the enrollment period is for. We wanted to develop a program that was really simple. Obviously, there are a lot of programs out there. We wanted to create one that was really, really simple. So, enrollment is 100 percent online. Verification, most of it is remote, if we can verify cover crops remotely, but farmers can sign up. It’s a really fast and painless sign-up process. We pay $35 an acre. It doesn’t have to be new cover crops. You can enroll acres that you had cover crop the previous year, for example. It’s a year-to-year agreement, so there’s no long-term contract.”
West says he hopes the program encourages more producers to try cover crops as farmers continue dealing with a difficult farm economy.
“The first is give farmers financial assistance. We all know the state of the U.S. farm economy right now. The second is really just to adopt cover crops. Cover crops have been around for a long time. We have a really robust understanding about their benefits, but we have pretty low adoption around the country. So, we were hoping to create a program that was quick, fast, painless to get involved in, and let farmers start using cover crops if they haven’t.”
West says the coalition remains focused on making participation simple as producers look for ways to improve soil health and manage costs.
