More than 1.3 million acres and 1,900 farms have achieved certification through the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program.Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Megan Moland said the voluntary program works with farmers and agricultural landowners to identify conservation practices that protect water quality.“The program partners farms with area certification specialists to then do a field-by-field assessment of the operation to identify any areas of risk and develop mitigation strategies to improve water quality,” Moland said.The program estimates conservation practices implemented through certification prevent more than 78,000 pounds of phosphorus and approximately 1.2 million pounds of nitrogen from entering Minnesota waters each year.
