Sign up is now underway at South Dakota county NRCS offices for the bee forage pollinator health program.  The nation’s beekeepers are losing about 30 percent of their honeybees every year and USDA has provided $ 3 million nationally to encourage producers to plant bee forage.  South Dakota NRCS Assistant State Conservationist Jeff Vanderwilt says the intent is to improve the health of the bees, which play an important role in crop production.

Vanderwilt says there are a number of conservation practices producers can utilize in the pollinator health program.

Technical and funding assistance is through the NRCS environmental quality incentives program or EQIP. The South Dakota deadline to apply is April 18.