From Hyde SWCD

The Hyde Soil & Water Conservation District has received its allocation for the North Carolina Agriculture Cost Share Program for the 2019 program year.

The Hyde Soil & Water Conservation District received $37,169 in cost-share funds and $7,500 through the Agricultural Water Resources Assistance Program. The sign-up for applications is underway and continues through Jan. 31, 2019, or until all funds have been expended. The district offers funding on best management practices such as nutrient management, water-control structures, land smoothing and three-year continuous no-till crop rotation.

The limit for nutrient-management acreage is 250 acres and the applicant must agree to carry out the practice for three years on the same land. The incentive payment for this practice is $6 per acre. The acreage limit on conservation tillage is 100 acres. The incentive payment for this practice is $60 per acre. The district is offering land smoothing at $187.50 an acre with a 40-acre cap and cover crop at 150 acres at $40 an acre with a lifetime cap not to exceed $15,000.

The purpose of the cost-share program is to reduce the amount of nutrients entering surface and groundwater through best management practices such as nutrient management.

Anyone interested in these programs should contact the Hyde Soil & Water

Conservation District office located at 30 Oyster Creek Road, Hyde Government Center,

Suite 131, in Swan Quarter, or call the district office at (252) 926-4195 or (252) 926-5291. Allie Mulligan, the district resource specialist, will talk to applicants about the programs and assist them with the application process.