Program participation is voluntary. An applicant must develop an EQIP plan of operations for the eligible land to be treated that serves as the basis for the EQIP contract. Under EQIP, NRCS provides its participants with technical assistance and payments to plan and apply needed conservation practices.

To be eligible to participate in EQIP, an applicant must:

Be in compliance with the highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions found at part 12 of this title;

Must be a producer as determined by NRCS;

Have control of the land for the term of the proposed contract unless an exception is made by the Chief in the case of land administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Indian lands, or other instances in which the Chief determines that there is sufficient assurance of control;

The Chief may determine that land administered by BIA, Indian land, or other such circumstances provides sufficient assurance of control, and

If the applicant is a tenant of the land involved in agricultural production or forestry management, the applicant will provide the Chief with the written concurrence of the landowner in order to apply a structural practice;

Agree to implement the EQIP plan of operations according to the provisions and conditions established in the EQIP contract, including the EQIP contract appendix;

Submit an EQIP plan of operations or plan developed for the purposes of acquiring an air or water quality permit, provided these plans contain elements equivalent to those elements required by an EQIP plan of operations and are acceptable to NRCS as being consistent with the purposes of the program;

Supply information, as required by NRCS, to determine eligibility for the program, including but not limited to, information to verify the applicant's status as a limited resource, beginning farmer or rancher, and payment eligibility as established by 7 CFR part 1400; and

Provide a list of all members of the legal entity and embedded entities along with members' tax identification numbers and percentage interest in the entity.

Eligible land includes cropland, grassland, rangeland, pasture, NIPF, and other land on which agricultural products, livestock, or forest-related products are produced and resource concerns may be addressed. Other agricultural lands include cropped woodland, marshes, incidental areas included in the agricultural operation, and other types of agricultural land used for production of livestock. However, land may be considered for enrollment in EQIP only if NRCS determines that the land is:

Privately owned land; or

Publicly owned land where:

The land is a working component of the participant's agricultural and forestry operation,

The participant has control of the land for the term of the contract, and

The conservation practices to be implemented on the public land are necessary and will contribute to an improvement in the identified resource concern; or

Indian land.