Virginia FY2009 New Organic Initiative
 Documents & Procedures

The Organic Initiative is a nationwide special initiative to provide financial assistance to National Organic Program (NOP) certified organic producers as well as producers in the process of transitioning to organic production. Organic producers may also apply for assistance under general EQIP.  Review our summary of how to become an organic producer.  For a list of available practices and rates, review the Payment Schedule.

Under the Organic Initiative required minimum core conservation practices will be determined by specific resource concerns. The practices are: Conservation Crop Rotation; Cover Crop; Nutrient Management; Pest Management; Prescribed Grazing; and Forage Harvest Management. States must consider using any appropriate practice that meets the resource concern on a particular operation.

To assist with eligibility questions there are two separate National Screening Tools for applicants (one for producers transitioning for the first time and one for certified organic producers transitioning additional land or adding additional conservation practices). Ranking criteria has been established based on resource concerns that link to the NOP objectives and the core conservation practices.

The Initiative will provide EQIP conservation payments to:

• farmers just beginning to transition to certified organic production;
• farmers already in the process of transitioning to certified organic production;
• existing certified organic farmers who are transitioning additional acres or herds;
• existing certified organic farmers who need to adopt additional conservation measures to fully address particular natural resource and environmental concerns;
• and existing certified organic farmers who want to both transition additional production and adopt additional conservation measures on existing certified organic ground (a combination of the third and fourth bullet point).

SPECIAL FUNDING POOLS

Farmer applications to this special Initiative will be treated as two separate ranking pools, one for transitioning farmers without any current certified organic production, and one for existing certified organic farmers who are either adding new transitional production or adopting new conservation measures on existing organic production. In both cases, those in these special funding pools will be competing only against others in the special pool rather than in the much, much larger general EQIP pool.

As provided by law, there is a $20,000 per year ($80,000 over 6 years) payment limit for applications within this special pool.

Educational Materials

The following documents require Acrobat Reader.  If you encounter any problems with the files provided on this page, please contact Ron Wood at (804) 287-1660.

Virginia NRCS Training (pdf, 230kb)
Virginia NRCS News Release (pdf, 16kb)
Virginia NRCS Organic Initiative Fact Sheet (pdf, 139kb)
 

EQIP Organic Initiative Payment Schedules

The following documents require Acrobat Reader

EQIP Organic Initiative Payment Schedule (pdf, 45kb)
EQIP Organic Initiative Historically Underserved Participants (pdf, 45kb)

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