INCENTIVES FOR COVER CROPS

First-time cover crop growers earn incentives through Farmers for Soil Health.

- Raylene Nickel

Farmers looking to try cover crops can get a helping hand with cost and technical assistance through the recently established Farmers for Soil Health (FSH) initiative. Operating in 20 states, FSH facilitates financial incentives and technical assistance to farmers planting cover crops for the first time.

The initiative results from a partnership between the United Soybean Board (USB), the National Pork Board, and the National Corn Growers Association. Also participating in the project are the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Soil Health Institute, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Funding comes from a grant awarded by USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. Numerous other projects across the country also received grant funds through the USDA program.

The 20 states covered by the FSH initiative include Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The primary goal of the FSH initiative is to further build the health and resiliency of soil by facilitating the planting of cover crops on 30 million acres of U.S. farmland by 2030. This represents a doubling of the present number of cover crop acres. 

Such an expansion presents broad environmental benefits, as well as benefits to individual farms. “An increase in cover crop acreage of that magnitude should boost soil health and function by increasing carbon sequestration and reducing erosion and nitrogen lost to groundwater,” says Erin Gundy, soil health educator at the Soil Health Institute. “With support from mentors and technical advisers to help in the transition, farmers can see benefits in three years.”

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