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Iowa celebrates Soil & Water Conservation Week

This is Soil and Water Conservation Week in Iowa.

Iowa ag secretary Mike Naig says they’re highlighting the ongoing work by farmers, landowners and urban residents to protect the state’s soil and water resources. And Naig says the state’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy is an important part of that effort.

“It’s based on the idea that we don’t need a regulatory approach to improve water quality, that states can take the lead…that if we can show that we have the wherewithal to make progress in a real way, then we don’t need the heavy hand of government to come in and regulate how we use our land and how we farm,” Naig says.

More than 420 million dollars in funding has been documented for efforts in support of the strategy last year—a 32 million dollar increase over previous year, Naig says.

“This is not just something that the state does alone. What we’re highlighting this week is all of the partnerships that have to come together, all of the ways that we’re able to leverage dollars—with the federal government, with local partners, with landowners, with the private sector—to really get work done in a way that moves us forward significantly on water quality.”

The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy was established in 2013. It is a science- and technology-based approach to achieving a 45 percent reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus losses to Iowa’s waters.

In this interview with Brownfield, Naig discusses Soil and Water Conservation Week, May is Beef Month and Iowa’s planting progress

AUDIO: Mike Naig