Alabama NRCS Awards Conservation Innovation Grants

Auburn, Ala, July 7, 2008

Gary Kobylski, Alabama State Conservationist for Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), announced the award of $90,292 dollars to fund two state Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG). The award grantees are Wiregrass Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council, Ozark, Alabama, and Daly Family Farms, Elkmont, Alabama.

"Conservation Innovation Grants stimulate the development, transfer, and adoption of promising new technologies and approaches to address some of Alabama’s most pressing natural resource concerns," says Kobylski. CIG enables NRCS to work with other entities to accelerate technology transfer. The program also requires a 50-50 match between the agency and the applicant.  NRCS provides technical oversight for each project.

The grant to the Wiregrass RC&D Council will be used to demonstrate the effects and incentives of high residue and legume cover crop conservation tillage systems. The concept will be demonstrated on Andy Lavender’s Farm in Coffee County, Alabama and J. P. Kelley’s Farm in Houston County, Alabama. The project will demonstrate conservation-tillage crop production systems that integrate high-residue and legume winter annual covers. Conservation tillage systems with high-residue rye cover crop, low residue rye cover crop, and clover cover crop will be compared to a traditional conservation tillage system with no winter cover crops. The primary summer cash crops will be cotton and peanuts. The objective is to demonstrate tenable production systems adaptable to local conditions that reduce soil erosion, improve soil productivity and quality, and promote farm profitability in southeast Alabama. The project director will be Deborah Childree.

The grant to Daly Family Farm will be used to produce biodiesel from oilseed crops grown on the farm in order to supply the farm with the fuel needed for a cropping season. The objective is to reduce the fuel cost of farming by two-thirds with onsite production of biodiesel from products raised on the farm, improve the atmosphere by lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and increase community awareness of biodiesel production. The project director will be Barbara Daly.

Alabama also received two national CIG grants. American Forest Foundation received a national multi-state grant to develop and implement a market based habitat credit bank for the Gopher Tortoise on family forestlands in Georgia and portions of Alabama.

Tuskegee University received a national single-state CIG grant to look at integration of goats into Alabama grazing land systems for vegetation management and improved pasture health.

The two national CIG grants totaled $451,699.

NRCS administers the CIG grants as a part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). CIG benefits agricultural producers and consumers by providing more options and possibilities for environmental enhancement.