Ag Grants Help Local Farmers Conserve Water
BY LEE ZION
Staff Writer
ENCINITAS , Oliver Storm’s irrigation project not only benefits the environment, it also aids his bottom line as well.
As the head grower for Weidners’ Gardens, he received $15,000 to upgrade the nursery’s irrigation system from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program last year. He hopes to get another grant this year for additional work.
EQIP makes grants of up to $50,000 available to local farmers for environmental projects helping conserve water or topsoil. The program is funded through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The program also provides technical assistance, as well as assistance in complying with federal, state, and tribal environmental laws.
Storm described the project he undertook with EQIP assistance.
“The irrigation systems were set up about 20 years or so ago. And at that time, water conservation wasn’t a concern at all; fertilizer wasn’t expensive. So systems were laid out in ways which worked at the time, but were very inefficient,” he said.
One problem was that water didn’t come out of the system evenly. So some plants received more water than they needed, just to make sure that the plants at the back of the nursery were watered properly, Storm said.
Even Water Flow Needed
Another problem was that plants would be watered only once a day, getting a large amount of water at once. But the soil can absorb a limited amount of water at a time, so much of that water went to waste, he said.
Storm needed to upgrade the pressure regulators at the nursery to assure more even water flow. He also needed to install more sophisticated timers, which would allow him to use less water spread several times throughout the day.
EQIP paid for 50 percent of the installation, while Storm paid the remaining $15,000 for the project, he said.
The project was completed in mid-2001. Storm estimated the project will save $4,000 in water and fertilizer costs.
Now he’s looking for an additional grant this year to begin the next phase of the project. This will give him a 50 percent subsidy to install a system for collecting the remaining excess water for reuse around the nursery.
Program’s Sixth Year
Jason Jackson, district conservationist with the NRCS, said this was the sixth year of the program, implemented as part of the 1996 Farm Bill. The federal law subsidizes the cost of conservation practices on agricultural land, he said.
The program is national in scope, but the focus varies from area to area. In San Diego County, the main focus is on water conservation and water quality.
Jackson said water conservation in San Diego is more important than ever, due to an agreement last year between California and six other Western states. California will be required to reduce its imports of Colorado River water by 14 percent over the next 15 years, even as population continues to grow, he said.
Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, strongly supported EQIP.
“We think it’s an excellent idea,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for a partnership between the USDA and the growers to make a change in the way that the business is conducted, such as issues of cleaning up the water.”
Up-Front Costs Reduced
One benefit of EQIP is that it reduces the up-front costs for farmers. Although conservation has several long-term cost benefits, it involves a large investment at the beginning, Larson said.
He used recycling irrigation water as an example.
“For a lot of growers, the up-front costs to build a pond, filter systems and a recycling system are immense. So in the EQIP partnership there’s a chance to do that and make that investment,” he said.
The environment benefits because less water is wasted. The farmer benefits because his water costs are reduced, Larson said.
Another advantage of the program is that it creates model projects that other farmers can look at and see examples of how conservation assists farming, he said.
“Everybody in this community benefits from the conservation, is what the bottom line is,” he said.
