Agricultural Conservation: USDA Should Improve Its Process for Allocating Funds to States for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program

United States. Government Accountability Office.

United States. Government Accountability Office.

关键词: Government accountability -- United States.;    agriculture and food;    agricultural conservation;    letter report;   

RP-ID  :  GAO-06-969
RP-ID  :  251625

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) assists agricultural producers who install conservation practices, such as planting vegetation along streams and installing waste storage facilities, to address impairments to water, air, and soil caused by agriculture or to conserve water. EQIP is a voluntary program managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS allocates about $1 billion in financial and technical assistance funds to states annually. About $650 million of the funds are allocated through a general financial assistance formula. As requested, GAO reviewed whether USDA's process for allocating EQIP funds to states is consistent with the program's purposes and whether USDA has developed outcome-based measures to monitor program performance. To address these issues, GAO, in part, examined the factors and weights in the general financial assistance formula"