[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 7, Volume 10]
[Revised as of January 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 7CFR1466.8]

[Page 621-622]
 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
  CHAPTER XIV--COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 
PART 1466--ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INCENTIVES PROGRAM--Table of Contents
 
                      Subpart A--General Provisions
 
Sec.  1466.8  Program requirements.

    (a) Program participation is voluntary. The applicant develops an 
EQIP plan of perations for the agricultural land to be treated that 
serves as the basis for the EQIP contract. NRCS provides participants 
with technical assistance, cost-share and/or incentive payments to apply 
needed conservation practices and land-use adjustments.
    (b) To be eligible to participate in EQIP, an applicant must:
    (1) Be in compliance with the highly erodible land and wetland 
conservation provisions found at 7 CFR part 12.
    (2) Have an interest in the farming operation as defined in 7 CFR 
1400.3.
    (3) Have control of the land for the life of the proposed contract 
period.
    (i) An exception may be made by the Chief of NRCS in the case of 
land allotted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Tribal land, or 
other instances in which the Chief determines that there is sufficient 
assurance of control;
    (ii) If the applicant is a tenant of the land involved in 
agricultural production, the applicant shall provide the Chief of NRCS 
with the written concurrence of the landowner in order to apply a 
structural conservation practice.
    (4) Submit an EQIP plan of operations that is acceptable to NRCS as 
being in compliance with the terms and conditions of the program; and
    (5) Supply information, as required by NRCS, to determine 
eligibility for the program; including but not limited to information to 
verify the applicant's status as a limited resource farmer or rancher or 
beginning farmer or rancher and eligibility as per Adjusted Gross 
Income, 7 CFR 1400 subpart G.
    (c) Land used as cropland, rangeland, pasture, private non-
industrial forest land, and other land on which crops or livestock are 
produced, including agricultural land that NRCS determines poses a 
threat to soil, water, air, or related natural resources, may be 
eligible for enrollment in EQIP. However, land may be considered for 
enrollment

[[Page 622]]

in EQIP only if NRCS determines that the land is:
    (1) Privately owned land;
    (2) Publicly owned land where:
    (i) The land is under private control for the contract period and is 
included in the participant's operating unit; and
    (ii) The conservation practices will contribute to an improvement in 
the identified natural resource concern; or
    (3) Tribal, allotted, or Indian trust land.
    (d) Sixty percent of available EQIP financial assistance will be 
targeted to conservation practices related to livestock production, 
including practices on grazing lands and other lands directly 
attributable to livestock production, as measured at the National level.