USDA NRCS EQIP — Seasonal High Tunnel (Practice 325)

What this actually is

USDA pays for most of a greenhouse on your land — but this is a COST-SHARE, not free money, and the order of operations decides whether you get paid. Up to 75% of estimated costs incurred (7 CFR 1466.23(b)(1)(i)). A HISTORICALLY UNDERSERVED producer — beginning, veteran, socially disadvantaged, or limited-resource — gets the applicable rate PLUS not less than 25 percentage points, capped at 90% (1466.23(b)(3)), AND may receive an ADVANCE PAYMENT of at least 50% and up to 100% of anticipated costs BEFORE building (1466.24(d)(1)). For those producers the pay-first problem largely disappears, and NRCS is required to tell you about the advance at enrollment (1466.5(d)) — if nobody did, ask in writing. Dollars per square foot are set in your STATE payment schedule, re-evaluated yearly; roughly $6–$12/sq ft is typical but the real number and any square-footage cap come from your state office, not from a national figure. Drip irrigation, mulching and drainage can be funded in the same contract.

Who qualifies, and what trips people up

Must control the land, have a farm number from USDA FSA (free), and sign the EQIP contract BEFORE construction begins — there is no payment authority for work done before the contract (7 CFR 1466.21(a)). Applications are continuous but funded at state ranking dates. Advance payments require an NRCS-approved practice design first and must be spent within 90 days.