To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a small farm EQIP subprogram under the environmental quality incentives program, and for other purposes.
About This Bill
Committee
Latest Action · September 21, 2023
Referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology.
This bill creates a dedicated program within the Agriculture Department's environmental conservation efforts specifically for small farms. The legislation establishes a new subprogram that provides financial and technical assistance to small-scale agricultural producers, defined primarily by farm size relative to each state's median farm size and by gross sales. The bill allocates at least $100 million annually for fiscal years 2024 through 2028, with 35 percent dedicated to hiring and training agricultural specialists to work with small farms and 65 percent going directly to farmers in the form of payments. The program includes special incentives, such as a 50 percent increase in payments for farms operating soil health management systems on operations of fifty acres or less. The Agriculture Department is required to establish state-level coordinators, streamline the application process to reduce paperwork burdens, provide outreach in multiple languages, and submit a progress report to Congress by May 2027.
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