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Minnesota water quality program surpasses 1 million voluntary acres enrolled

Minnesota’s Agriculture Water Quality Certification program has eclipsed one million certified acres.

Governor Tim Walz says participation in the voluntary program has doubled since 2019.

“And in 2020 we made the bold prediction in Minnesota (saying) let’s try to get one million acres enrolled in this. This is voluntary enrolling, working together trying to do these best practices. And today we’re proud to announce we’ve surpassed that million acres.”

Walz joined Ag Commissioner Thom Petersen and others on the Eric and Michelle Heins farm near Altura to commemorate the achievement.

“As we know that we’re going to in the future see more of the climate disruptions we’ve seen, whether it’s drought or heavy rain events, we need to build resiliency into that. And this program is one of those pieces of it.”

Minnesota farmers who implement and maintain approved farm management practices can be Ag Water Quality certified, in turn obtaining regulatory certainty for a period of ten years.