A BILL to amend and reenact § 10.1-2128.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program; small farms.
HB1435 amends Virginia Code § 10.1-2128.1 governing the Virginia Natural Resources Commitment Fund, which is the subfund used to finance the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program. The bill keeps the fund in place as a nonreverting special fund administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and continues to direct its money solely to cost-share support for agricultural best management practices.
The bill’s central policy change is to revise how the program treats small farms. It defines a “small farm” as an agricultural operation with gross cash farm income of less than $350,000 and requires that no less than 30 percent of the matching grants in both the Chesapeake Bay watershed allocation and the outside-watershed allocation be granted to small farms. It also preserves the existing split of program funding between technical assistance for soil and water conservation districts and matching grants for BMP implementation, while requiring the department to determine and report annual funding needs for district technical assistance in consultation with stakeholders.
If enacted, HB1435 would amend the state’s agricultural conservation funding rules by embedding a specific small-farm set-aside into the Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program. It would affect the Department of Conservation and Recreation, soil and water conservation districts, and agricultural producers seeking cost-share grants for conservation practices, especially smaller operations that may have had less access to program funds. The bill would also reinforce the program’s existing Chesapeake Bay watershed and non-watershed funding structure and maintain the Virginia Natural Resources Commitment Fund as the dedicated financing mechanism.
Based on the bill text and its legislative status, the measure appears to be a targeted agricultural support bill with a pro-small-farm and conservation-oriented purpose. There are no recorded committee transcripts or votes in the provided materials, and the bill was left in the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee. That suggests the proposal did not advance, but the available record does not show explicit support or opposition statements.
The main point of potential contention is the mandated 30 percent minimum share for small farms within both grant pools, which could be viewed as improving access for smaller agricultural operations but also as limiting flexibility in how conservation funds are distributed. Another possible issue is the bill’s interaction with existing funding priorities for Chesapeake Bay watershed projects and non-watershed projects, since it preserves those allocations while adding a new set-aside. No specific objections or supporters are documented in the provided committee materials.