Voices from the industry How will the farm bill help farmers?
WACC wants the 2018 Farm Bill to make it easier for farmers to access federal programs. By Jeff Eisenberg
T
he Western Agriculture and Conservation Coalition was formed in 2012 by leading agriculture and conservation groups to form a common voice for addressing the
sustainability of the rural West for agriculture and natural resources. The Irrigation Association was an important early participant in the coalition. Our focus has been water, the Endangered Species Act and the farm bill.
A principal focus for WACC in the current farm bill round has been on making federal programs easier to use to improve irrigation systems.
A principal focus for WACC in the current farm bill round has been on making federal programs easier to use to improve water efficiency in irrigation systems. The versions of the farm bill passed by both the House and Senate will increase opportunities for producers to irrigate their crops with the assistance of federal programs, if the assistance is desired. The greater availability of federal financial support could reduce the number of irrigation projects that aren’t implemented due a lack of funding.
Before celebration is unleashed in full force, it should be clarified that as of early September, staff for the two chambers have not been able to reconcile significant differences in the conservation and the food and nutrition titles of the two bills. So, while the signs are positive for expanded irrigation authority in a new farm bill, this will, in fact, not be the case until the president signs a bill into law.
Committee chairs and ranking members will make the decisions to reconcile the titles and submit the bills to their respective chambers for a vote. The current farm bill expires on Sept. 30. The committee hopes to have a vote on the new bill before the current law expires but recognizes an extension through November could become necessary.
As noted, both the House and the Senate included provisions that strengthen federal support for irrigated agriculture in the main conservation program available for production agriculture, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Other beneficial
34 Irrigation TODAY | October 2018
provisions were included by both chambers in the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. For EQIP, both chambers made irrigation districts themselves eligible to apply for funding for infrastructure improvements, benefiting multiple producers within a single district. This is a significant reform of existing law that only permits each individual producer within an irrigation district to apply for EQIP funding. A producer-by-producer approach made it very difficult to do the kind of system-wide projects that are often necessary to achieve the desired water management improvements needed to run the most efficient operations.
Other measures making it easier for irrigation districts and their members to participate include clarifying that program limits apply to the participating members of an irrigation district, not to the district itself. Under current law, attributing payment limits to irrigation districts was a bar to implementation of a system-wide EQIP project. Additionally, the House has a discretionary waiver of adjusted gross income limits on individual producer participation in conservation programs, which supports projects that achieve the greatest water management benefits and minimizes focus on the social distribution of federal dollars.
A major difference between the House and Senate EQIP irrigation district provisions is that the Senate makes wildlife habitat a factor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consider in approving projects. Agriculture interests have become increasingly concerned with the drift of the farm bill conservation title toward serving conservation interests, believing this comes at the expense of agriculture concerns. Agriculture wants farm bill dollars to serve agriculture interests. It is a bonus if wildlife benefits also come about from the federal funding, but it is not the objective of the funding.
Regardless of how these provisions are reconciled, both the House and Senate versions of the conservation title of the 2018 Farm Bill will make federal funding more readily accessible for irrigated agriculture. The Irrigation Association should be proud of its strong contribution to this important result!
Jeff Eisenberg is the director of the Western Agriculture and Conservation Coalition.
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