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The president of Virginia’s largest farm organization is encouraging farmers and agricultural organizations statewide to get involved immediately with the 1986 Farm Bill’s Sodbuster and Swampbuster programs.
Robert B. Delano, president of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, which represents 38,000 state farmers, urged the conservation practices after meeting with state officials last week in Richmond.
Officials from the state Soil Conservation Service, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service and Division of Soil and Water Conservation explained Virginia’s role in the two programs during a VFBF board meeting.
The programs are part of the Farm Bill’s Food Security Act regarding conservation and it gives farmers until January 1, 1990 or two years from the initial plan to develop and begin actively applying a conservation plan on highly erodible farmland and precious wetlands. The plan must be fully operational by 1995.
“The practice of farming on erodible land has led to both excessive soil erosion and overproduction of many commodities,” Mr. Delano said. “Farmers are conservationists by nature and the majority of them abide by the rules already. But some of the rules (in the two programs) are contrary to some of their practices.”
Farmers not complying will lose eligibility for nearly all USDA program benefits. That includes price and income supports, crop insurance, Farmers Home Administration loans, Commodity Credit Corporation storage payments, farm storage facility loans, Conservation Reserve programs, annual pay
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