DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa farmers have applied for state funding to help them reduce the amount of fertilizer and manure runoff from fields on more than 120,000 acres. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says farmers submitted applications for $2.8 million in cost share funding made available to help implement practices intended to help improve water quality. Since it’s a cost-share program farmers will provide at least $2.8 million of their money.

Northey says the department received applications from 1,096 different farmers covering 120,680 acres. Practices include use of cover crops, no-till and strip-till farming and use of a chemical that slows the rate at which ammonia applied as fertilizer is converted to nitrogen. The department received $3 million in one-time funding to support statewide water quality practices over the next five years.