The annual sign-up period for the Kent Conservation District’s Cover Crop Cost-Share Program will take place now through July 31. This popular grant program provides farmers in Kent County, Delaware with cost-share assistance to offset seed, labor, and equipment costs to plant fall cover crops to protect local water quality, build healthy soils, and capture carbon from the atmosphere.
Fall planted cover crops can provide a range of water quality, soil health, and climate benefits. In addition to protecting local streams from nutrient and sediment runoff, they also add organic matter to the soil, control weeds and pests, and help protect fields from too much or too little rain. Cover crops can also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the soil to help mitigate climate change.
The Kent Conservation District’s Cover Crop Program provides cost-share to farmers who plant a variety of small grains and other types of cover crops on their fields following the fall harvest. Funding is provided by the Delaware Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
For more information, farmers should contact Virginia Grimm or Zachary Torgerson at 302-608-5370 or email virginia.grimm@delaware.gov or zachary.torgerson@delaware.gov.
