KBIA Local
(2009-09-25)
COLUMBIA, MO
(KBIA) -
Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack (Ville-sack) announced a new initiative today that could significantly benefit Missouri. The United States Department of Agriculture is making 320 million dollars available over the next four years to conservation projects around the Mississippi River Basin. The USDA will be working with the local Natural Resources Conservation Services around the area. The USDA says it wants the money to be used toward voluntary projects in priority watersheds. Missouri NRCS Assistant State Conservationist Dwaine Gelnar (Gell-ner) says he thinks Missouri will receive a good portion of the funds to use in various areas across the state."We'd expect that Missouri would get a fair share of that probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 percent of those funds. And they'll come through various methods. One thing they could do is result in contracts with individual land owners to apply various practices on their farms that would help with the water quality."
Gelnar says some of the techniques that could be used to improve the quality of the basin area are nutrient management, conservation tillage, and other innovative practices. © Copyright 2012, KBIA
