IABRN — Governor Kim Reynolds (R-IA) Tuesday unveiled a bold vision, which “preserves Iowa’s heritage, while seizing opportunities.”
A state agriculture official outlines new opportunities for Iowa agriculture, based off the Governor’s Condition of the State address.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig seemed encouraged by Governor Reynold’s bold agenda, “which puts Iowa on a path to growth and opportunity.” He looks forward to working with the Governor’s office and Iowa Legislature to fund conservation efforts.
“We’re continuing to scale up the implementation of conservation practices in this state. Over the last several years, the Legislature has provided increasing funding each year. Next year we’ll have even more dollars to work with,” Secretary Naig said. “Our mentality has been all about: How can we scale up, how can we do more, how can we put additional boots on the ground, how can we work with the private sector and how can we work with cities and landowners to get more conservation work done?,” Naig said.
Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship employees look forward to enhancing conservation efforts across the state. Naig speaks to Iowa’s “rich history” of protecting natural resources.
“We see a lot of grass waterways and terraces. When we started implementing Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy, we brought in some new practices,” Naig said. “We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the amount of cover crops in the state. We’ve gone from 1,000 acres 10 years ago to over a million acres this year. No-till has been a great story over the last several years. The other edge-of-field practice we’re looking at is nitrate reducing wetlands. It has taken us 15 years to build about 90 wetlands. We’re going to design and build 30 in the next couple of years.”
This article originally appeared on the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
