The National Farm Stewardship program provides agricultural producers financial assistance to implement improved management practices as an incentive to encourage them to examine their operations through the environmental farm planning process.

Regina based Client Service Centre Manager Jim Melville says interest has escalated dramatically last spring and this spring and he estimates 100 to 200 applications are received per day from across the three prairie provinces.

Jim Melville-Agriculture and Agrifood Canada

There's 30 beneficial management practices identified as eligible for funding under the farm stewardship program, everything from improved manure storage and handling to water well management to assisting with the purchases of equipment such as GPS equipment for spraying and fertilizer placement and then there's some planning BMPs as well.

It's a pretty wide ranging program.

There is two levels of eligibility depending on the beneficial management practice.

Some of them are funded at 30 percent and some of them are funded at 50 percent.

The break is the environmental benefit to the general public.

The ones with the lower contribution rate are more directed to where there is an environmental benefit but there's also a bigger benefit to the farming operation and the higher contribution level assists projects where there is a bigger environmental benefit to the general public such as riparian health and things like that.

Melville notes the only prerequisite to qualify for assistance under the Farm Stewardship program is that a producer has to have completed the environmental farm planning process and have a pier reviewed farm plan in place with a statement of completion issued by one of the provincial delivery agents.