Tinian farmers may lose funding if DoD cancels use of lands

Tinian farmers may have gotten a reprieve in their use of military leased lands until July 2016 but they may yet lose the funding being provided by the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service if no new relocation site is identified or once the leaseback expires.

USDA-NRCS provides some $300,000 or more to CNMI farmers. In fiscal year 2014, Tinian farmers received that amount in financial assistance. This fiscal year, a total of $436,800 is available to Commonwealth farmers, most of which goes to Tinian farmers.

Tinian’s farmers benefit from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program that allows them to receive financial and technical assistance to implement conservation practices.

Tinian Cattlemen Association president Jose Dela Cruz said that losing the federal assistance will have a big economic impact on the community.

Dela Cruz said they are also partners with USDA-NRCS for the beef or cattle industry initiative and if they lose the lands they are using, it will set back the initiative.

In an interview at his office in USDA Service Center in Garapan, USDA-NRCS district conservationist Kendal Hicks said if the military does not move forward with the land being leased and doesn’t identify a new site that farmers can use, Tinian farmers using the military lands may be put out of business.

“You’re placing cattlemen effectively and very likely out of business, unless he is able to acquire some substitute land through Department of Public Lands, so worst case scenario is that somebody could be put out of business,” Hicks said.

He said it is not so much a loss of assets as a loss of income-generating ability.

“You take away their fields of grass, they cannot raise cattle anymore, so their money-making operation ceases to exist. That means no funding will be provided. That is one of our bedrock rules and requirements in order to have financial assistance contract with any agriculture producer. They have to be able to show a control of the land for the life of the contract,” Hicks said.

He said that money is dispersed based on the completion of contract items and they reimburse the farmers for their work on conservation practices. An example is 1,000 feet of fence built on their land. USDA-NRCS staff would inspect it to make sure that it was installed properly and then they certify it and then reimburse the farmer if it meets standards.

However, the farmer usually doesn’t have just one contract item on the list; they would usually have eight to 10 items. Hicks said it is based on the concept that farmers would normally pay for all of the work and materials and would be reimbursed for it if they are under the program. CNMI farmers have different cost lists, with Saipan being the lowest, Tinian being in the middle, and Rota being the highest in reimbursement based on shipping.

For the Tinian farmers’ cost list, using the fence as an example, is $8.41 per foot for the barbed wire, multiplied with 1,000 feet and that is how much the farmer would get.

Dela Cruz said he uses what USDA-NRCS provides him for clearing his land, planting needed vegetation for cattle, and providing water facilities.

“There are other farmers here that get different funding costs from NRCS so it isn’t only me,” he said.

Hicks said they provide EQIP assistance not only to Tinian farmers but also Saipan and Rota farmers who are legal residents and have farmlands. The program also doesn’t only apply to U.S residents.