By Robert Pore
robert.pore@theindependent.com

"Biodiversity is vital for human survival and livelihoods. We need to conserve it for future generations," said James G. Butler, deputy director-general of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. "At the same time, the unacceptable scale of hunger and rural poverty in our small planet calls for urgent remedial action."

Helping to preserve biodiversity on U.S. farm and ranch lands is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), said Steve Chick, state conservationist for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Since the introduction of the USDA conservation programs in the 1996 Farm Bill, Chick said, farmers and ranchers have enrolled 230 million acres into long-term contracts in USDA conservation programs. That figure doesn't include the USDA's Conservation Reserve Program.

Within EQIP, Chick said, landowners and operators have enrolled 165 million acres, making the program the largest USDA conservation program from an acreage enrollment standpoint.

He said that within Nebraska, farmers and ranchers have enrolled 5.9 million acres into EQIP since its inception, not including what will be enrolled in the current fiscal year.

He said that since the 1996 Farm Bill, NRCS has signed 10,152 EQIP contracts with Nebraska farmers and ranchers.

"Amazingly, the average cost per acre of lands enrolled in EQIP in Nebraska was $7 per acre under the 1996 Farm Bill and $33 per acre under the 2002 Farm Bill, so not only is EQIP a widely utilized program, but it is also a very cost-effective investment in the improvement of our natural resources," Chick said.

Butler said mainstreaming biodiversity into the food and agriculture, livestock fisheries and forestry sectors will be critical to provide humankind with opportunities for increasing food availability and stability while maintaining a healthy natural capital for future generations.