Water is Everywhere, What’s a Farmer To Do?

First posted on 01-28-2010

It’s been a wet two years for Arkansas’s agriculture community and the floods have farm producers looking at income alternatives for their flood prone croplands. Farmers have lost income on hundreds of acres of crops due to record rains over the last few years.

The state’s farmers are finding they have a huge selection of federal, state and private programs available to them to retire these regularly flooded croplands, receiving income payments or other incentives while at the same time, restoring wildlife habitat on the farm. Many of these programs offer the financial support to retire and establish wildlife habitat on the farm to include cost-share assistance, yearly rental payments, $100 per acre Signing Incentive Payment, 40% Practice Incentive Payment, easement payments and other financial incentives to assist farmers in converting these annually flooded croplands to premium wildlife habitat.

Financial assistance is available through programs like the Farm Service Agency’s Continuous Conservation Reserve Program, the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wetland Reserve Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, Conservation Stewardship Program and Environmental Quality Incentive Program and other state and private programs.

According to David Long, private lands coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, many of these programs offer the farm producer a way out of farming acres that they lose a crop far more often than not from annual flooding and other weather related or production oriented problems. “These programs can create wildlife habitat on the farm along with provide supplemental farm income from yearly conservation rental payments, easement payments, private organization tree payments, tax credits, other incentives and establish habitat conditions for future alternative incomes through leasing the hunting rights or provide recreational opportunities for farm families and friends,” Long explained. “With several years of crop losses due to spring through fall flooding from major rain events, there has been a ground swell of farmers going to their county NRCS or FSA offices to enroll either field edges or whole fields, primarily on these flood prone and/or marginally productive croplands,” he advised.

The programs are applicable to most row-crop farm where the producer wants to not only target marginally productive croplands, but improve water quality and wildlife habitat. Farmers can become educated on these programs by talking to their county FSA or NRCS office personnel or contacting an AGFC Private Lands Biologist.

Long said that many cropland acres across the row crop counties in the state are currently only marginally profitable for agriculture production or experience annual flooding. “These include crop fields that may also be drought prone, have low yields, can’t be irrigated, are cropland edges with reduced yields next to timbered areas or just hard to farm for other reasons,” Long says.

The timing could not be better for farmers to investigate these financial conservation programs that may pay yearly rental payment for up to 15 years, $100 per acre signing incentives, easement payments, carbon tree planting payments or other incentives, Long explained. “Placing those hard to farm crop land acres into one of these conservation programs could improve the financial bottom-line for farmers on low-yielding cropland and at the same time, improve water quality, reduce erosion and increase habitat for quail, deer, turkey, rabbits, fish and many other species of wildlife,” he said.

Another new program that can be piggy-backed with whole CRP field enrollments going to hardwood and cottonwood plantings, pays an additional $350 per acre usually within the first year of enrollment or soon after the trees are planted, Long advised, Long says. “The program is called ‘GreenTrees’ and also offers additional future income from the cottonwood trees, plus the landowner receives a percentage of the carbon credits that may be sold in the future. However, only specific soils that are conducive to cottonwood/hardwood planting are eligible for the GreenTrees program but this includes many of the soils found in river basins throughout the delta,” Long said. “Add to all of the cropland flooding the last two years, many farm producers are seriously looking at this program with CRP as an alternative to farming these higher risk croplands,” he added.

Although water is normally a blessing to farm producers, these years of abnormally high rainfall during the production season has been more than many farmers can handle financially, Long said. “Combining private and government programs can offer significant financial income opportunities and very attractive alternatives to farming those cropland acres where farmers experience frequent crop income losses or are simply hard to farm and can be a win-win-win for the farmer, wildlife and society,” he says.

Farmers looking for alternatives, may contact their county FSA or NRCS office for more information or contact one of the AGFC’s private lands biologist at these toll-free numbers: Brinkley (877) 734-4581, Monticello (877) 367-3559, Mayflower (877) 470-3650, Jonesboro (877) 972-5438, Calico Rock (877) 297-4331, Russellville (877) 967-7577, Fort Smith (877) 478-1043, Hope (877) 777-5580 or Camden (877) 836-4512. For information on GreenTrees, call Andy Johnson at 870-403-3885. Long may be reached at (877) 972-5438.

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