Get involved with EQIP The EQIP application process is continuous throughout the year. Information and applications Optimize can be obtained at any local NRCS Field Office. To find out if EQIP is a perfect fit for your operation, contact your local NRCS office at a and protect USDA Service Center in your area or click on to www.wa.nrcs.usda.gov. your natural

Application Process The EQIP application process consists of the resources... EQIP can help producers improve irrigation water following five steps: efficiency. water that is lost to the field. 1. A landowner submits an application to In order to improve the application of water a local USDA Service Center, NRCS and make it more uniform, sprinkler irrigation office, or conservation district office. systems are cost-shared and installed. These 2. NRCS ranks each application using the systems apply water to the plant when needed locally developed natural resources at a rate the soil can manage. There is no deep ranking process. percolation or runoff with the sprinkler irrigation 3. When funds are allocated, NRCS system. What this means is a better use of the commits funds to high ranking resources; water, power, fertilizer, and chemicals applications. which equals better quality crops. 4. NRCS works with the applicant to develop an EQIP conservation plan and Irrigation Water Management contract containing practices which will With the installation of new irrigation solve identified resource problems. systems, landowners need to learn how and when 5. Following contract signature by to apply water. For most of the new systems it NRCS and the selected entity, funds is possible to apply water almost anytime it is are obligated to the project and the needed. The uniformity of water application is participant may begin to implement the very high with these systems and so the field is EQIP conservation plan. covered with the amount of water desired. In order to ensure that water is applied Environmental Quality when needed, irrigation scheduling is necessary. Incentives Program (EQIP) Irrigation scheduling is a part of irrigation water management and can be done using a number of Program Guide different methods, including soil moisture probes. Helping people help the land. Water use rates are compared to water application An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer rates to reduce the possibility of deep percolation below the root zone of the crop. November 2005 Washington he Environmental Quality practices such as direct seeding and reduced Incentives Program (EQIP) is a tillage, prescribed grazing, nutrient, manure, voluntary program that provides “It’s a really simple process irrigation water, wildlife habitat, livestock, and T and it has saved me thousands technical and financial assistance to integrated pest management. These payments may agricultural producers who face threats of dollars.” be provided for up to three years to encourage to soil, water, air, and other related Juan De LaTorre producers to adopt best management practices. natural resources on their land. NRCS can help determine your best options in The USDA - Natural Resources addressing your resource concerns. Conservation Service (NRCS) administers the EQIP program with help Improving Irrigation Systems from Local Work Groups (LWG) which Irrigation water is required for most crops are chaired by the conservation districts. grown in Central Washington. Many different The LWGs lead a process to adapt irrigation systems are used to apply water. In the national, state, and local priorities to early years, the primary method of irrigation was address local natural resource concerns. surface. The surface system used was rill irrigation In Washington, EQIP is focused on which is the application of water into a furrow for improving water quality and quantity, the length of the field. This system has a tendancy (conserving both ground and surface to over irrigate the upper end, under irrigate water), and reducing soil erosion on the lower end of the field, and produce runoff cropland, pastureland, and forestland. structural, vegetative, and land management EQIP can also be used to treat resource concerns practices on eligible land. “On a scale of 1 to 10, I in riparian and aquatic areas, improving air quality, would give the NRCS a 10.” and wildlife issues. What EQIP can do for you Gurmeet Singh Washington’s goals and objectives for EQIP Washington’s landscapes range from old- are assisting eligible applicants in complying growth forests to ocean beaches, arid scablands with federal, state; local and tribal environmental to snow-capped peaks. EQIP provides local work regulations in an environmentally safe and cost- groups with the flexibility to address the varied effective manner resource issues associated with Washington’s through a locally diverse landscape and agricultural operations. led process. NRCS may pay up to 75 percent of the costs Washington’s of certain conservation practices such as grassed agricultural waterways, filter strips, manure management producers facilities, livestock water development, livestock have a strong fencing, fish passageways (culvert replacement), tradition in and other practices important to improving and actively utilizing maintaining the health of natural resources in the EQIP the area. The EQIP cost-share rates for limited program to meet these regulations. EQIP achieves resource producers and beginning farmers and a producer’s natural resource objectives by the ranchers may be up to 90 percent. implementation of a conservation plan. The Incentive payments may be made to EQIP contract and conservation plan may include encourage a producer to perform land management Environmental Quality Incentives Program Program Guide