Sign up extended for camelina incentive program
Washington Ag Today September 16, 2011 Today was to have been the deadline for farmers to sign up for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program but the Farm Service Agency announced yesterday that the deadline has now been extended to next Friday, September 23rd. In Washington state the BCAP program provides an incentive for farmers in all but three eastern Washington counties to grow camelina. The exceptions are Yakima, Klickitat and Kittitas. Rod Hamilton of the state FSA Office says sign up is not that complicated. Hamilton: “The producer needs to get a contract with the project sponsor, which is AltAir Fuels, actually the contracts are being done with Sustainable Oils. And then they need to come into our office. The contract is fairly simple. They do need to get a conservation plan with NRCS. That is something they will want to talk with NRCS about, however we are using an interim plan to get them done by the end of sign up and then if NRCS doesn‘t have time to finish that plan they can do that after the contract is approved.” Another company participating but only in Whitman County is Beaver Biodiesel LLC of Albany, Oregon. Participants not only get paid for the camelina they grow but Hamilton says the BCAP program provides a payment similar to CRP. Hamilton: “It is that rental rate, a county average in this case, and add a 50% incentive on top of it. So it would actually be a higher payment rate than the average CRP payment rate in the county.” Again that BCAP deadline was extended a week to September 23rd. Contact you local FSA office for more information. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
