(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a couple of ag-related bills into law. Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig says one for the ag and natural resources budget included “farm to faucet” water quality funding. “I think our current situation in central Iowa just drives home the necessity of working together again upstream in the watershed to reduce nutrient loss like nitrates and phosphorus,” Naig says.
The bill includes 25 million dollars to upgrade the nitrate treatment system at the Central Iowa Waterworks. Naig says it provides funding to a variety of water quality projects. “It doubles down on some programs and projects that are already working, meaning we’re going to work upstream to implement more conservation practices like cover crops, like converting some land to pasture, those types of things, but also made resources available for small communities to invest in their water treatment, wastewater, drinking water, stormwater as well,” he says.
Naig says they are seeing more and more farmers get involved in the conservation efforts. “We’ve gone from a few thousand acres of cover crops to over four million acres of cover crops. We’re building wetlands at a pace that we’ve never seen, multiple of what we’ve seen before. So historic levels of investment in conservation work,” Naig says. The governor also signed the first ever Iowa Farm Act.
“Every provision in that comprehensive bill tied back to an idea or a challenge or an opportunity that we learned about throughout the year and put that forward,” he says. Naig says it helps a variety of ag programs that in turn help Iowans. “Some things around Choose Iowa, which again is making more fresh, local, nutritious foods available to schools. It addressed sales tax exemption for honeybees. It helped with a tax exemption for veterinarians who are willing to practice in rural Iowa, it continued our investment in preventing and preparing to respond to foreign animal diseases,” he says.
Naig says he appreciates the fact this was a bipartisan supported bill in both chambers.
