USDA signs Technical Service Provider Agreement with Irrigation Association

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2003—The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced a cooperative partnership with the Irrigation Association that will help producers manage their water resources more efficiently.

The 2002 Farm Bill expanded the availability of technical assistance to private landowners by encouraging the use of third parties—called technical service providers—to assist USDA in delivering conservation technical assistance services to farmers, ranchers and others.

USDA and the Irrigation Association signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at a ceremony held today at USDA headquarters in Washington D.C. Bruce Knight, chief, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Adam Skolnik, president of the Irrigation Association, signed the MOU.

The five-year agreement allows the Irrigation Association to recommend agricultural certified irrigation designers to USDA. These designers must perform work that meets USDA standards and specifications for effective water management.

"The Irrigation Association’s rigorous certification procedures will help our farmers and ranchers receive quality assistance in irrigation design and system evaluation," Knight said. "In many regions of our nation, farmers and ranchers need effective irrigation design assistance to ensure their operations will remain profitable. To that end, Irrigation Association specialists will provide a very valuable service for USDA."

Knight said the Irrigation Association’s expertise becomes even more critical to USDA as it implements the Ground and Surface Water Conservation (GSWC) provision of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. This provision provides financial assistance for producers to improve irrigation systems and enhance their efficiency. Though irrigated land can be found in all states, most of the irrigated acreage is concentrated in the West, which faces considerable water conservation needs.

The certified specialists will be placed on a national, web-based registry called TechReg that is available to landowners, farmers, ranchers and others seeking conservation technical assistance. So far, the registry has about 400 certified TSPs and 432 pending applications.

Additional information on technical service provider assistance is available at http://techreg.usda.gov. Information on the 2002 Farm Bill can be found at www.usda.gov/farmbill.

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