These funds are available for assistance to farmers only when natural disasters create new conservation problems which if not treated will (1) impair or endanger the land, (2) materially affect the productive capacity of the land, (3) represent damage which is unusual in character and, except for wind erosion, is not the type which would recur frequently in the same area, and (4) be so costly to rehabilitate that Federal assistance is or will be required to return the land to productive agricultural use. Under the 1961 program, assistance was provided primarily for rehabilitating land damaged from the extended widespread and intense drought that occurred in the inter-Mountain and Great Plains States and east to the Great Lakes. Under the 1962 and 1963 programs, cost-sharing assistance is being provided for carrying out emergency conservation measures to treat farmlands damaged by flood and farmlands susceptible to damage from wind erosion. Cost-sharing assistance (up to 80 percent of the cost of carrying out approved practices) is offered to assist and encourage farmers to rehabilitate farmlands damaged by natural disasters. Funds for emergency cost-sharing assistance are distributed among States on the basis of needs for restoration of damaged lands. STATUS OF PROGRAM Public Laws Nos. 85-58 and 85-170 appropriated $24 million for providing cost-sharing assistance to farmers and ranchers for carrying out approved emergency conservation measures to restore and protect farmland damaged by natural disasters. Public Law 85-766 provided that the unobligated balance remain available until expended. Public Law 87-332 appropriated an additional $5 million. An unobligated balance of approximately $9.5 million was carried forward into the fiscal year 1963. As of January 21, 1963, $4.1 million had been made available to States for emergency conservation measures to be carried out under the 1963 program to rehabilitate farm and ranchland damaged by wind and flood. Cost-sharing assistance (up to 80 percent of the cost of carrying out approved practices) is offered to assist and encourage farmers to rehabilitate farmlands damaged by natural disasters. Assistance is available only when, as a result of wind erosion, floods, hurricanes, or other natural disasters, new conservation problems have been created which (1) if not treated, will impair or endanger the land; (2) materially affect the productive capacity of the land; (3) represent damage which is unusual in character and, except for wind erosion, is not the type which would recur frequently in the same area; and (4) will be so costly to rehabilitate that Federal assistance is or will be required to return the land to productive agricultural use. Funds for emergency cost-sharing assistance are distributed among States on the basis of needs for restoration of damaged lands. Flood In the flood disaster areas, farmers have sustained considerable loss by severe gully erosion, silting of drainage systems, and damage to waterways, terraces, and diversions. Many bottomland fields have been severely scoured and cut by streams that overflowed their banks. Cost-sharing assistance to rehabilitate farmlands damaged by floods includes: 1. Removal of debris. 2. Smoothing gullies and field washouts. 3. Stream bank stabilization. 4. Restoration of pond levees, spillways, sod waterways, drainage ditches, terraces, and diversions. Six counties have been designated as disaster counties eligible for cost-sharing assistance-Arizona, 2; Washington, 1; and Oregon, 3. Wind damage A severe windstorm in October resulted in considerable damage to cropland, pastures, and orchards in the States of Oregon and Washington. Twenty counties have been designated as disaster counties eligible under the criteria in and authority of Public Law 85-58. Cost-sharing assistance has been approved for the following practices: 1. Removal of debris from stream channels, waterways, and ditches. 2. Removal of debris from cropland and pastures. 3. Removing debris from orchards. 4. Removing debris from farm woodland. The funds available for emergency cost-sharing assistance have been used as follows: The statement below shows by State, the number of designated counties and the amounts allocated for cost-sharing assistance, by program, beginning with 1958. program: Mr. GODFREY. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we stopped discussion yesterday afternoon just as we finished a series of charts on commodities. I would like to resume this afternoon in talking about one of the very important phases of ASCS activities, land use generally, and the agricultural conservation program. I will use, with your permission, a series of charts to illustrate some things about conservation and land use. LAND IN CONSERVATION PROGRAMS Starting with the first chart here, we have attempted to use a wheel to show the total farmland in the United States, about a third of it being made up of cropland, about a third woodland, and about a third grassland. This is all of the farmland in the United States. (The chart referred to follows:) Mr. GODFREY. Then I have attempted to show also the amount that is now either under conservation reserve or in the Great Plain conservation program or in our cropland conversion program. You will notice a small portion of it here [indicating] between the two white lines which is now being taken care of in these other programs. That leaves, then, the remaining 961/2 percent of the farmland which is to be handled under the agricultural conservation program insofar as conservation assistance is concerned. I use this chart to bring out the point that the Great Plains conservation program, the conservation reserve, and the cropland conversion programs are not serving all of the land that we have in our farms. The majority of it is to be served, as far as conservation practices are concerned, by ACP. ACP PARTICIPATION Now, the second chart I have here is a chart which shows participation in the program during 1960 and 1961. This shows a record of increased participation. (The chart referred to follows:) Mr. GODFREY. The total number of farms participating in 1961 is 1,217,000 as compared to 1,029,000 in 1960. I will point out also that the number of participating farms not only increased but the amount of acreage increased materially. The cropland acres, for example, went up 30 million, which is almost 20 percent increase over the 152 million that was under the program previously. Farmland acres went up to 433 million. USE OF ACP FUNDS This is an attempt here to show the breakdown of the use of the funds: Practice payments to farmers, $219 million in 1961. Small cost share increase, which is provided by law, about $10.7 million. We transferred to the Soil Conservation Service for technical services almost $8 million and to other agencies for technical services, $265,000. Other program services, $669,000. The average cost share per farm went down from $199 to $187 even though the total payments went up. This is attributed to the fact that we had an increase of 20 percent in the number of participating farmers. LONG-RANGE ACP BENEFITS FROM INCREASED PARTICIPATION Now, this projects it a little bit further and shows what we are attempting to do over the long pull and what we have done since 1959. |