The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a voluntary
conservation program that encourages producers to address resource concerns in a
comprehensive manner by:
• Undertaking additional conservation activities; and
• Improving, maintaining, and managing existing conservation activities.
CSP is available on Tribal and private agricultural lands in all
50 States and the Caribbean and Pacific Islands Areas. The program provides
equitable access to all producers, regardless of operation size, crops produced,
or geographic location.
To be eligible to participate in CSP, applicants must:
• Demonstrate that they are meeting the stewardship
threshold for at least one resource concern; and
• Address at least one additional priority resource concern
by the end of the conservation stewardship contract.
The program will enroll an additional 12,769,000 acres for each
fiscal year. Acreage will be allocated based primarily on each State’s or Area’s
proportion of eligible acres to the total number of all eligible acres. In addition to private agricultural lands, up to 10 percent of the enrolled acreage may be in nonindustrial
private forest land.
State Conservationists and Area Directors will rank and select
applications based on national, State, and local criteria. Contracts will cover
the entire agricultural operation and will be for 5 years.
CSP payments will compensate producers for:
• Installing and adopting additional conservation
activities;
• Improving, maintaining, and managing conservation
activities in place a the time the contract offer is accepted by the
Secretary;
• Adopting resource-conserving crop rotations to achieve
beneficial crop rotations;
• Engaging in activities related to on-farm conservation
research and demonstration activities, and pilot testing of new technologies
or innovative conservation practices.
CSP payments to an individual or legal entity may not exceed
$200,000 for all contracts entered into during any 5-year period.
The 2008 Farm Bill prohibits new contracts under the Conservation Security
Program (as authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill) after September 30, 2008, and
provides for funding for all current contracts.
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