Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)

Sharing with agricultural producers the cost of rehabilitating eligible farmlands damaged by natural disaster and providing emergency water assistance—both for livestock and for existing irrigation systems for orchards and vineyards

Also known as the USDA FSA Disaster Assistance Program, ECP was created to enable farmers to take emergency conservation measures to control wind erosion on farmlands; to rehabilitate farmlands damaged by wind erosion; floods, hurricanes, or other natural disasters; and to carry out emergency water conservation or water enhancing measures during periods of severe drought.

The program offers cost-sharing assistance for carrying out conservation practices. Any person who is owner, landlord, tenant, or sharecropper on a farm or ranch and bears a part of the cost of an approved conservation practice in a disaster area is eligible to apply for cost-share conservation assistance.

Application and Financial Information
ECP cost-share assistance may be available to agricultural producers for all designated natural disasters. The FSA State Executive Director implements the ECP except when severe drought conditions exist. In the case of drought, the Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs may authorize assistance.

Eligibility for ECP assistance is determined by county FSA committees, who base their decisions on individual on-site inspections and take into account the type and extent of the damage. Cost share assistance of up to 64 percent is available.

Requests for cost-sharing of $20,000 or less per person per disaster are evaluated and approved by county committees. State FSA committees must approve all applications for assistance for more than $20,000. Applications for amounts greater than $62,500 must be approved by the Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs.

Technical assistance for ECP may be provided by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Eligibility, Uses, and Restrictions
To be eligible for ECP assistance, the applicant must have suffered a natural disaster that created new conservation problems, which, if left untreated, would: impair or endanger the land; materially affect the land's productive capacity; represent unusual damage which, except for wind erosion, is not the type likely to recur frequently in the same area; or be so costly to repair that federal assistance is or will be required to return the land to productive agricultural use.

Note: Conservation problems that existed before the natural disaster are not eligible for cost-sharing assistance.

ECP funds may be used to remove debris; restore fences; grade and shape farmland; restore structures; or establish water conservation measures, including providing water to livestock in periods of severe drought. Other emergency conservation measures may be authorized by county FSA committees with the approval of the State Committee and the Agency's Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs.

Contact
Farmers should contact their local county FSA office after a natural disaster has occurred to determine eligibility for emergency cost-share assistance. Consult the local phone directory or visit the website listed below for locations of county FSA offices.

National Program Office
Conservation and Environmental Programs Division
Emergency Conservation Program
USDA Farm Service Agency, Stop 0513
Washington, DC 20013
Phone: (202) 720-6221; Fax: (202) 720-4619

Internet
http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov/ecp.htm

Last Updated December 20, 2004