Agency of Agriculture details $18.4 million in farm clean‑water assistance, flags federal funding uncertainty

Laura DiPietro, director of water quality at the Agency of Agriculture, told a legislative committee that the agency administered “about $18,400,000 out the door to farms and also to partners” in the last year as part of its annual technical and financial assistance report.

DiPietro said the money supports measures that go “above and beyond what the minimum regulatory standards are,” including capital projects and annual agronomic practices designed to reduce phosphorus runoff into Lake Champlain and other waters. She described a shared database used by the agency and partner organizations to track technical‑assistance visits and quantify phosphorus reductions achieved by funded projects.

The report groups the agency’s work into several programs. DiPietro described the Ag Clean Water Initiative (a multi‑year, competitive funding stream), best management practices (BMP) grants for structural projects such as manure storage and silage leachate collection, the Farm Agronomic Practices program (FAP) for annual practices including cover crops and no‑till, CREP tree‑buffer contracts, a Capital Equipment Assistance program to help farmers and custom applicators buy specialized equipment, and newer…