As President-elect Joe Biden assembles his transition teams and looks toward building a better future, he has the opportunity to boost agricultural resilience in ways that improve the health of rural communities and ecosystems.

The Department of Agriculture has finalized a rule making soil health, comprehensive nutrient management plan, and advanced payment changes to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

Landowners and producers enrolled in 21.9 million acres of the Conservation Reserve Program should begin receiving $1.68 billion in annual rental payments, the Department of Agriculture said Thursday.

The American Farmland Trust announced a new model geared toward increasing the use of conservation practices in the Great Lakes Basin by engaging women landowners, the operators who lease their land, and agricultural retailers through workshops, toolkits and “learning circles.”

Hundreds of California farmers who have successfully completed prior conservation projects are well positioned to move to the next level of conservation, according to NRCS.

The Department of Agriculture will start offering landowners and farmers a chance to enroll in 30-year Conservation Reserve Program contracts starting in July.

On Earth Day, Mark Heckman, a farmer in Southeast Iowa, invites you to visit his farm through a virtual farm tour to see all the work and practices he has put in place to protect and enhance the environment he lives and works on.