AR Farmers, Ranchers Tout Benefits of Federal Conservation Programs

A new poll shows Arkansas farmers and ranchers believe they benefit from voluntary conservation programs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Arkansas has 15 counties identified as priority conservation areas focusing on saving 7 million acres using prescribed burning and prescribed grazing.

Aviva Glaser - the senior director of agriculture policy with the National Wildlife Federation, which released the poll - said many producers want to see an expansion of services.

"One of the interesting findings out of this was that not only was there strong support for this funding in general, but there was very strong support for increasing this funding," said Glaser. "Seventy-five percent of farmers said that they wanted to see an increase in long-term funding."