Advocates Push For Cover Crop Expansion Funding

rm fields are uniting again this spring to urge legislators to provide more support for farmers’ use of cover crops to protect the state’s soils and water supplies.

Environmental advocates and experts are teaming up with Illinois farming organizations to push for $3.1 million in new state funding to support expansion of the highly popular Fall Covers for Spring Savings Program (FCSS), as state legislators debate and formulate Illinois’ next state budget.

The FCSS gives farmers whose applications are accepted a $5-an-acre subsidy on their next year’s crop insurance for every acre of cover crops...