The Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a voluntary conservation program from the
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. 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.
Alabama’s resource concerns recommended
by the State Technical Committee are: Grazing Lands, Water Conservation, At
Risk Species Habitat, Erosion/Soil Quality and Water Quality (Animal Waste).
Georgia’s resource concerns recommended
by the State Technical Committee are: Soil Quality- Erosion, Water Quality-
Livestock Waste Management, Water Quality- Grazing Lands and Water Conservation
(Irrigation Water Management).
South Carolina's resource concerns,
recommended by the State Technical Committee are: Soil Quality, Water
Quantity, Surface Water Quality, Air Quality, Grazing Lands
Health, Plant Population Health, Wetlands Health and Habitat Quality.
Local Working Groups
have identified resource concern priorities for their area. The conservation
practices that treat the resource needs of the highest concerns receive the
most environmental points and are funded accordingly. The EQIP Point
Calculator is an estimating tool provided by the University of South
Carolina-Earth Sciences Research Institute and the USDA-Natural Resources
Conservation Service.
Use of the EQIP
Points Calculator will generate an estimate of your possible EQIP score for the
2004 ranking process in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Contact
your local NRCS office to verify your actual EQIP ranking score and related
practice information.
1. Select your state from the pull down menu.
2. Select your county from the pull down menu and Click “Go”.
3. Select a Resource Concern.
4. Select a Resource Concern Description from the pull down menu.
(Only the considerations associated with that resource concern will show up.)
5. Select a criteria from the pull down menu and click “Add Criteria
to Score” Button.
Repeat steps 3-5 (*except in Georgia)
until all appropriate Resource Concerns, RC Descriptions and Criteria have been
added.
At this point a Preliminary Score has
been calculated and shown in the table of step 6. The Preliminary Score is calculated based on points assigned to
Criteria and the associated weighting of the Resource Concerns in the selected
county.
*For Georgia, do not repeat for multiple resource
concerns. Each concern is ranked separately. Local Work
Groups allocate funds and set priorities for each concern.
6. Click on the “Select Practice” link to bring up a pull down menu
of practices that address the Resource Concern in the row of that link. The pull down menu will be located beneath
the table of practices.
7. Select a practice from the pull down window and click “Add”.
Repeat step 7 until all desired practices have been added to address the associated Resource Concern.
Repeat steps 6 and 7 (except in
Georgia) until all Resource Concerns have been addressed.
8. From the “Select Bonus Points Category” pull down menu, select a
Bonus.
9. From the “Assign Points” pull down menu, select a Bonus Criteria
and click the “Add Bonus” button.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until all
Bonus Points that a producer is willing to meet the criteria for have been
entered.
11. Click on the “Score Report” Link to view a printable score sheet which
shows all Resource Concerns and associated practices.
Please note - This
example will generate an estimate of your possible score. Contact your
local NRCS office to verify your actual EQIP ranking score and related practice
information.
Open the site for
EQIP public score: http://www.esri.sc.edu/s_eqip/publicscore04.aspx
.