In the News - May 2008
Get Dollars for Conservation by Participating in New SAFE Program
PINE BLUFF, Ark. - Farmers and landowners of marginal cropland seeking to
forego the uncertainties of farming for a steady income and to help the
environment should consider SAFE - a new conservation program, says Dr. Henry
English, director of the Small Farm Program at the University of Arkansas at
Pine Bluff (UAPB).
SAFE is State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement, a new Conservation Reserve
Program (CRP) program offered by the Arkansas Farm Service Agency (FSA). SAFE's
initiative is to enhance high priority wildlife habitat on marginal croplands
through reforestation and the restoration of grasslands and wetlands in 54
counties.
Under the SAFE program, the cost share is 90 percent, plus an additional $100
per acre spring Signing Incentive Payment (SIP) in addition to the producer's
annual 10-to-15 year soil rental payments, which usually average $62 an acre.
"Enrolling acres prone to flooding, drought, low yielding, not land leveled or
hard to irrigate in SAFE could prove quite beneficial to producers," says Dr.
English.
Farmers should decide if the SAFE program is for them as soon as possible
because once acreage goals are met, signup will cease, warns Dr. English.
Enrollment is limited to 9,700 acres in Arkansas on a first-come, first-served
basis.
For more information about CRP SAFE enrollment, farmers should contact their
county FSA or Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices or the
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission at (877) 972-5438.
May 2, 2008
By: Carol Sanders
Writer/editor
UAPB School of Agriculture
Fisheries and Human Sciences
(870) 575-7238
sanders_c@uapb.edu
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