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Show Garfield Gets Part Of $206,000 Juoan The Soil Conservation Districts' Zone V Executive Committee has approved $206,000 in low interest Agricultural Resource Development Loans (ARDL) to seven farmers to improve irrigation systems and develop de-velop livestock water on rangcland in Iron, Garfield, Beaver and Kane counties. The ARDL Loans are made available through the Utah Department Depart-ment of Agriculture in order to provide low interest loans to farmers farm-ers and ranchers for projects which meet the conservation goals of the program. The loans arc intended to encourage conservation and pollution pollu-tion control measures. These low interest loans carry a one-time 4 percent administrative cost plus a 3 percent annual interest rate. The goals of the program are to: conserve soil and water, increase agricultural yields, maintain and improve water quality, conserve and improve wildlife habitat, prevent flooding, conserve andor develop on-farm energy projects, and mitigate miti-gate damages as a result of natural disasters (e.g. flooding, drought, etc.) Over $3.5 million dollars in loans have been approved in the five southwest counties since 1983. Program applications may be obtained at the local Conservation Service office, from your local soil conservation district supervisor, or from the Utah Department of Agriculture. Agri-culture. Application forms should be completed and returned to your local soil conservation district supervisor. supervi-sor. If the supervisors determine that your project meets the program guidelines, they will assign someone some-one to assist you with project development de-velopment and design. After the project plans are approved ap-proved by the soil conservation district for funding and monies are available, the Commission will determine de-termine credit eligibility and draw up the loan papers. When the loan agreement is complete, you may begin to draw against your account. All the planning and approval is done at the local level to ensure maximum flexibility to adapt to local situation. Therefore, local conservation priorities are used to determine the best use of loan funds. Any private farm operator who meets the USDA farm definition of $1,000 or more in gross sales annually an-nually is eligible to apply for loan. Practices must be applied to farmland farm-land or ranchland. The loan program encourages combining these funds with others to provide the maximum conservation conserva-tion benefit. There is no restriction against using ARDL funds in combination com-bination with other grants and loans. |