Empowering Women as Conservationists

Remarks by Dana York, Associate Chief
Natural Resources Conservation Service, at
Women in Agriculture and Small Business Conference
Oklahoma City, OK
August 11, 2006

Thanks, Darrel (Dominick) for that kind introduction. And thank you for inviting me to your luncheon. I’ve been looking forward to spending time with you today.

I am eager to share with you some thoughts about women in agriculture and tell you about Natural Resources Conservation Service programs available to help you safeguard your resources and benefit the environment.

Also, I want to report some success stories featuring women in Oklahoma who’ve participated in conservation programs.

Women in Agriculture

I think it’s clear to all of us in this room that women are a growing force in agriculture today. The 2002 Census of Agriculture found that 27 percent of all agricultural operators—primary, secondary and tertiary—are women. And women are the primary operators on 11 percent of U.S. farms—nearly a quarter of a million strong.

Partly, this is a matter of life expectancy. Women simply live longer. Again, the Ag Census statistics bear this out.

The average age of a female farmer who is sole owner and also leases land is approximately 70 years. But we also know that women who are secondary and tertiary operators take an active role in running and managing farms and ranches, even though more than 60 percent of them have off-farm jobs.

NRCS and Conservation

At NRCS, our mission is helping people help the land, and our focus is working agricultural lands. We are aiming for both productive lands and a healthy environment.

Working lands conservation programs are unique among agricultural programs because they are specifically designed to produce multiple benefits. Farmers or ranchers who install conservation practices improve their land and enhance their natural resources. But the public also receives many benefits: a cleaner environment, increased biological diversity and a scenic landscape, to name just a few.

We offer landowners three basic kinds of help:

1. Technical assistance—such as designing conservation plans to help them manage their land effectively and developing standards and specifications for conservation practices;

2. Financial assistance—helping pay for conservation practices on private lands that bring public environmental benefits; and

3. Conservation easements—paying to preserve and restore wetlands, forests, range and farmland—permanently or for 10-30 years.

The 2002 farm bill committed unprecedented resources—more than $17.1 billion in funding over 10 years—for conservation. Last year alone, through farm bill programs, NRCS invested more than $33 million in conservation in Oklahoma, covering more than 800,000 acres. I want to tell you about some of the specific programs we offer farmers and share a few success stories.

Limited Resource and Beginning Farmers

NRCS programs are open to farmers with operations of all sizes, but we offer some special considerations to limited-resource and beginning farmers. Some of you may qualify—or you may know someone who does.

If you have direct or indirect gross farm sales of not more than $106,400 in each of the previous two years AND income at or below the poverty level for a family of four or less than 50 percent of county median household income in each of the previous two years, you are considered a limited resource farmer.

Qualifying as a limited resource or beginning farmer gives you two steps forward for NRCS programs. First, when we look at the pool of farmers who have asked for and qualified for help, we move limited-resource farmers to the front of the line. Second, when we share the cost of conservation practices, we pay a higher portion of the cost for limited resource farmers—90 percent in many cases.

This year we’ve set aside up to $10 million specifically for limited resource farmers. Last year, we piloted this program in 11 states, working with 1,100 farmers. We have a number of technically sound economical conservation practices that are specifically designed for smaller operations— and could make a difference for you.

These practices can include, for example:

• Erosion control
• Water management
• Grazing land planting and management
• Livestock watering facilities
• Fencing
• Irrigation systems

NRCS Conservation Programs

Let me speak briefly about some specific NRCS programs. Our largest program is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program or EQIP. EQIP has grown from a $200 million program in FY 2001 to more than $1 billion in FY 2006. This is one of the most significant changes brought about by the 2002 farm bill.

From 2002 through 2006, EQIP funds have benefited about 185,000 participants. About 14,500 EQIP contracts went to women producers over the last four years.
I might also mention that last year about 16 percent of our EQIP contract dollars went to limited resource producers or beginning farmers and ranchers.

In 2006, funds from EQIP are dedicated to five priorities:

• Reducing nonpoint source pollution in impaired watershed and reducing point source pollution such as contamination from confined animal feeding operations

• Conserving ground and surface water

• Reducing air emissions that impair air quality

• Reducing soil erosion and sedimentation, and

• Promoting at-risk species habitat conservation

I’d like to tell you about two women in Oklahoma who’ve benefited from the EQIP program. First is Margarita Munoz who came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 18. She began farming 11 years ago after retiring from a manufacturing job. Today she owns and farms 700 acres and runs 150 head of cattle. She makes a point of scouring her land every winter to clip cedar seedlings. EQIP cost-share funds have helped her plant Bermuda grass and provide water sources for the cattle.

Another Payne County farmer, Jane Whitfield, has used EQIP cost-share money to remove cedars and ragweed on her 715-acre farm where she runs three herds of beef cattle. She uses no-till to save fuel, reduce labor costs and preserve topsoil.
And she keeps her loppers handy to cut cedars down faster than they can grow.

Let me switch gears to talk about our newest conservation program—the Conservation Security Program. CSP recognizes and rewards outstanding stewardship and enables and encourages the best stewards to do more.

CSP is offered on a rotational basis with individual watersheds selected each year to participate. We began with 18 pioneering watersheds in 2004. Today the program covers every state and a total of 280 watersheds. For 2006, 428 farmers are participating in CSP here in the Sooner state, including 56 women.

One of the first CSP participants in Oklahoma was Sue Ann Priboth who manages nearly 1,200 acres in Kay and Grant Counties in the Lower Salt Fork Watershed. She took over management of the farm from her husband Don several years ago following his heart surgery. They switched completely to no-till, reducing labor and cutting fuel costs by two-thirds. They also follow a crop rotation plan with corn, grain sorghum, soybeans and wheat that helps control weeds and reduce disease. Through CSP, NRCS recognized the Priboths as outstanding stewards for improving wildlife habitat and using no-till to improve their soil-conditioning index. In prior years, Sue Ann participated in EQIP to install grassed waterways and plant grass to reduce erosion along creeks on the farm.

Another new program in the 2002 farm bill is the Grassland Reserve Program.
GRP helps landowners restore and protect grassland through easements or long-term rental agreements.

Demand for this program has been very strong. Since 2003, more than 3,000 landowners have participated, enrolling more than 900,000 acres.

NRCS also manages the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program which develops habitat for upland wildlife, wetlands wildlife, threatened and endangered species, fish and other wildlife. Since 2002, we’ve invested more than $165 million through 9,500 agreements covering 1.4 million acres of improved wildlife habitat.

Another very important conservation program is the Wetlands Reserve Program, which offers landowners the opportunity to protect, restore and enhance wetlands on their property. WRP is a key component in President Bush’s commitment to move beyond no net loss of wetlands in the U.S. to actually restoring, creating or enhancing 3 million acres by 2009. Toward that goal, we have enrolled nearly 750,000 acres in WRP easements.

Here in Oklahoma, Teneece Quigley and her sister Karen Marks have found both the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program helpful in wildlife conservation efforts on the 600-acre Plum Peaceful Farm they own along the Canadian River in Haskell County. With cost-share funds from these two NRCS programs, they’ve planted trees to draw wildlife and prevent stream bank erosion, established native grasses and built structures to restore wetlands.

Expanding Opportunities

The 2002 farm bill also brought NRCS some extra help through the Technical Service Provider program. TSPs have enabled us to respond to the unprecedented demand for technical assistance that the 2002 farm bill brought.

Over the past three years we’ve worked with more than 2,500 TSPs and these conservation consultants have provided NRCS the equivalent of 520 staff years.
We estimate that by the end of this fiscal year, we will have invested $163.5 million since the TSP program began in 2003.

But we could definitely use more TSPs. We have 46 listed for Oklahoma. If you have education, experience or expertise in conservation practices, you might want to check into this program. You’d be working off your farm, but on someone else’s!

We especially need help writing comprehensive nutrient management plans for livestock operations. The recently proposed EPA rule on concentrated animal feeding operations sets a deadline of July 31, 2007, for CAFOs to apply for permits and have nutrient management plans in place. We’ll need help meeting the expected demand for CNMPs.

New Technology and Tools

Another top priority for NRCS is developing and sharing new technology to better inform the decisions our customers make. I hope all of you have tried our Web Soil Survey, launched last summer. Now every landowner can access soil data 24/7 from the farm office or the kitchen via a home computer—just go to www.nrcs.usda.gov to check it out.

Not only is this much more convenient for farmers and ranchers, it’s much more efficient for NRCS. Through the Web Soil Survey, we have distributed more soil survey information to more customers in the past year than we accomplished with our printed copies over the past 5 years.

Another real boon to our customers is our trio of three-click energy estimators—which have received more than 1.5 million hits from over 45,000 visitors. With the help of these computer programs, you can figure out, based on your own inputs, whether you can save fuel and money by switching to no-till, adjusting your fertilizer applications or increasing irrigation efficiency. These estimators can help you manage your costs, boost your income AND benefit the environment at the same time.

2007 Farm Bill

I’d like to speak just briefly about next farm bill, which is just over the horizon.
Last summer and fall Secretary Johanns and other top USDA officials held a series of 53 listening sessions all around the country to hear directly from farmers and ranchers about what they’d like to see in the next farm bill. That included a session last September here in Oklahoma.

USDA staff analyzed the information shared in these forums as well additional public comments submitted. Drawing upon these recommendations, Secretary Johanns is issuing a series of theme papers that discuss how USDA programs operate and options for changes. The conservation theme paper came out June 8.

If you’re interested in conservation, I encourage you to take a look at this paper—or at least read the executive summary, which is about five pages. You can find it on the USDA website at www.usda.gov.

You’ll also have another chance to make your views known— specifically on conservation. There’ll be a series of listening sessions this month focusing on cooperative conservation—and one is scheduled in Enid on August 30. To get complete details, you can go to www.cooperativeconservation.gov.

Conclusion

You’re here today because you want to be successful—as business owners and farmers and ranchers. The formula for success is no secret.

But I think perhaps former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said it best, “What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.”

We all know that making a living from the land is hard work—but it’s rewarding work. It’s also rewarding to know you’re being a good steward of your resources and conserving the land for future generations.

I wish you all success as farmers, as business women and as people who care for the land and natural resources entrusted to you.