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  • From: Todd Lister <toddlister1 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] A Farmer's Opinion on NRCS and why its a poor program...
  • Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 20:42:28 -0400

Good post Tom
I am in a very rural county that is almost totally agriculture and I know the EQUIP program here has many possible grants they administer. Wells, erosion control, cover cropping, land clearing, fencing etc........ I know the effort put out by some agents is way more than others.
Also, my local NRCS office covers three counties while one just north of here is dedicated to just one county. Population density seems to be an issue with regards to resource allocation. I know Georgia is big on helping agricultural interest since it is so much of our reality. It sounds like our per sq. ft. allowance is considerably higher than some others.
One thought I have had is that the performance of these agents might be judged on how much money they can give out. I suppose that would mean an agent was doing a good job. It seems my agent is very motivated. He is presently attempting to get me irrigation infrastructure materials. I've been on drip for years and in fact like it. Certainly won't reject rigid, in ground though.
Interestingly enough there are at least 6 recipients of the HH in the immediate area. as I recall there were 53 in the state as of summer 2010.
Todd Lister
Vesta Ga

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 7:24 PM, Thomas Kumpf <tjkumpf AT yahoo.com> wrote:
     I applied for this program in early 2010 along with 2 other growers that I knew of in my county, and none of us received the grant.  However, another grower in an adjacent, but more highly urbanized county got one. Initially, NC was not on the list of states that were going to use the program, so I spoke with with someone who talked directly with the state NRCS director.  To the best of my recollection, NC initially was not included because the existing monies in the states NRCS fund were fully allocated, and many more requests were still pending for those existing programs.  However, it seems more monies were found, and a few growers received tunnels, one I know of is working with one of the NC ag schools.
    I think the big problem are the differences in the amount of tunnels and monies spent state by state, as published in Growing for Market.  Every grower feels they should qualify, and they probably do.  I think it should be based on more rigorous criteria, i.e. experienced vs. non-experienced, part time farmers vs. farmers who make their whole income from farming, etc. and so on.  But, the disparity in funding is most likely a function of the amount of funding available overall for ALL NRCS programs, not just tunnels.  I know my county agent is trying very hard to just get farmers to plant winter rye for erosion control, which there is a NRCS grant for that and other cover crops.  The amount of monies made available to each state and each county within that state varies b/c local conditions vary, i.e. more erosion/soil quality issues, more or fewer acres in cropland, larger or smaller watersheds, more or less urbanized, etc. and so on.
    Not getting a tunnel doesn't mean you are not a good farmer, it just means some people were lucky to live in a state and county that actually had some money available to pay for the program.  The luckier dogs had their days, that's all.  Its funny how the early adopters like the Wiedegers can't get a grant to expand on what they have already done in their own research, while others have to be pushed and plied with freebies to do something that is a no brainer to others.  Go figure.  One good farmer role model should be all one needs to convince others what direction to go.
    Tom Kumpf
    Tom Kumpf
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