Problems reported in farm program

STUTTGART — Farmers told members of the state’s congressional delegation Monday that a federal conservation program has gone off track and threatens their ability to continue operating.

“This is something that’s going to put some people out of business,” said Mickey Doyle, a Jackson County farmer.

Stan Jones, a Lawrence County farmer, agreed and said the problem was particularly acute because it comes at a time of falling commodity prices.

“We are dog-paddling,” Jones said. “All of us are. I don’t know how many of us you want to go out of business.”

Doyle and Jones spoke at a public meeting convened by U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford and also attended by U.S. Sen. John Boozman and U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, all Arkansas Republicans. Doyle, Jones and two other producers said at least 74 farmers in four counties had lost federal funding under the Conservation Stewardship Program because of actions by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Conservation Stewardship Program helps farmers improve conditions on their land, including soil, air and habitat quality, water quality and quantity and energy conservation. The program also provides payments for installing and maintaining conservation practices and for adopting resource-conserving crop rotation.

Crawford said Arkansas was the largest single recipient of Conservation Stewardship Program money in the federal budget year that ended Sept. 30, with receipts totaling $134 million. He said about $100 million of that went to farmers in the 1st Congressional District that he represents. Craw-

ford said the contracts typically are for about $40,000 annually for five years.

The farmers who spoke at Monday’s forum told stories that varied in their details but boiled down to two complaints: Paperwork they submitted on time was rejected for being too late after USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service suffered a computer failure, or their contracts were terminated because they didn’t notify the agency within 60 days of making changes in their operations. As a result, they said, they lost money they had expected to help pay for conservation improvements they made on their farms.

USDA representatives attended the meeting but didn’t speak because it wasn’t a formal hearing, Crawford said.

Michael Sullivan, the state conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said in an interview that the farmers’ problems had several causes.

For one, Sullivan said, funding for both the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program arrived late in the year, creating a burden on the Arkansas office’s staff. The problem was compounded

when the agency’s software failed, Sullivan said, adding that he was confident the money would have been disbursed on time if not for the computer glitch.

The 60-day notice requirement has been in place since the passage of the 2008 Farm Bill, but Sullivan said it has been poorly understood by both agency employees and farmers. Sullivan said that problem has been corrected.

The farmers said Monday that appealing the agency’s funding decisions was costly and time-consuming, and Sullivan said he hoped to simplify the process.

“We’ve been working with the national office to try to get flexibility beyond our policy to allow for easier fixes, but so far we haven’t been able to get there,” Sullivan said.

It wasn’t possible Monday afternoon to determine precisely how much money had been withheld from Arkansas farmers, but Sullivan said it could be more than $2 million.

Crawford said during the meeting that his staff would try to help all of the affected farmers, but added, “This isn’t a witch hunt.”

“We don’t solve this problem by creating an adversarial relationship” with the Department of Agriculture, Crawford said.