Environmental
Quality Incentive Program (EQIP)
EQIP-for-the-WebTM
The
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a voluntary conservation
program from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It supports
production agriculture and environmental quality as compatible goals. Through EQIP,
producers may receive financial and technical help with structural and
management conservation practices on agricultural land.
Because of limited funds, the producer must go through an application
process to determine the environmental need for financial assistance.
ESRI-USC
developed EQIP-for-the-WebTM in 2003 as a web-based application for
the South Carolina NRCS to determine participant’s environmental need.
The site and scoring system have been redesigned for the 2004 sign up to
accommodate multiple states’ scoring systems. NRCS in Alabama and Georgia have
joined South Carolina using EQIP-for-the-Web to manage scoring. Scores for the
program are calculated by multiplying county specific resource concern weighting
by program points associated with each resource concern to calculate a
preliminary score. This preliminary score is then multiplied by practice
effectiveness values assigned to each conservation practice to calculate an
adjusted score. The advantages of the web-based application are:
- Time reduction in calculating
applicant’s scores for the field office users.
- Quality of the application
process by automating calculations, and ranking participants.
- State and Field Offices have
automatic web access to detailed application information.
Due
to the sensitivity of the program, the ESRI-USC EQIP-for-the-WebTM is
password protected. NRCS field office users can only access those counties for
which they are responsible. The
public can access the State NRCS webpage for more information regarding the
application process, and use a rendition of the application tool to determine
scores.
The
webpage for the public accessible 2004 EQIP calculator is: http://www.esri.sc.edu/s_eqip/publicscore04.aspx
The
webpage for Instructions is:
http://www.esri.sc.edu/Resources/usda/eqip/public_score_help.htm
Click
here
for the 2003 EQIP calculator
For more information please call Wes
Standish at (803) 777-7600
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