Illinois State Funded Programs Need to Fill in Gaps

The interim goals of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, or NLRS, are to reduce 15% of nitrate-nitrogen losses and 25% total phosphorus losses to streams and rivers by 2025. A large part of getting to those goals means rapidly scaling up the kinds of regenerative farming practices that help reduce erosion, increase carbon sequestration, and promote soil health.

Most farmers are knowledgeable about these practices overall, the National Agricultural Statistic Service survey shows that 80% of farmers know about nutrient management and about 85% know about cover crops. However, many still lack access to the financial resources and technical assistance they need to put those practices in place on their farms.

Getting access to those financial resources is challenging for any farmer, but that is especially true in the state of Illinois. Despite being one of the largest producers of agricultural goods in the country and home to more than 24 million acres of cropland, Illinois receives far less funding than its neighboring states from federal agricultural conservation programs that promote the adoption of new practices, like the Environmental Qualities Incentive Program, or EQIP, and the Conservation Stewardship Program, or CSP.

Between 2009-2019, Illinois received between 16%-51% less funding than all the other upper Mississippi states in combined funding for EQIP and CSP. In addition, Farm Bill rules reserve at least 60% of EQIP dollars for livestock and wildlife habitat projects, meaning that even less of that money is available for implementing regenerative practices on Illinois crop land.