| 2009 Conservation Stewardship Program (CStP) - 10/2009 |
The 2008 Farm Bill created the New Conservation Stewardship Program (CStP) to replace the old Conservation Security Program (CSP) of prior years and improve its availability and appeal to agricultural and forestry producers. CStP is a voluntary program that encourages agricultural and forestry producers to address resource concerns by improving, maintaining and managing existing conservation activities and adopting new ones on their operations. This program is available nationwide and has a continuous sign-up with periodic cut-offs for ranking. USDA-NRCS had begun the continuous sign-up on Aug 10th with the first cutoff on September 30th, 2009. The target dates are as follows:
Pre-Approve Applications……...November 16
Verify & Approve………November 30
Second Round…………..December 1
Second Cutoff…..............January 14
New features of CStP include: Added non-industrial private forest lands as eligible land, competitively ranks peers who face similar resource challenges and focuses on resource concerns identified as a priority for the state or areas of the state. Maryland determined 5 priority resources concerns that will be used to rank applications. These 5 resources concerns are: air quality, soil erosion, soil quality, water quality and water quantity.
The program has 2 types of payments for performance: Annual Payment- for installing additional conservation activities as scheduled and maintaining existing activities, and Supplemental Payments- available for participant receiving an annual payment who also adopts a resource conserving crop rotation. CStP payments may not exceed $200,000 for all contracts entered into during any 5-year period.
There are two (2) different types of activities: Enhancements- used with the purpose to improve the level of stewardship on the farm and to address a specific resource concerns, and Practices- used for the purpose of encouraging producers to meet additional stewardship thresholds. During the application process an applicant may identify resource concerns (stewardship thresholds), that they are not meeting with existing activities (practices), and agree to meet them by installing new conservation practices.
Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, improved pastureland, rangeland, and non-industrial private forest and agricultural land. Eligible applicants may include individual landowners and legal entities.
To apply for the newly revamped CStP, potential applicants will be encouraged to use a Self-Screening Checklist to determine whether the new program is suitable for them or their operation. It is available on the NRCS Website and at our office. After self-screening, the producer’s current and proposed conservation practices are entered in the Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT), which inventory resources to estimate existing conservation performance level, schedule new conservation activities and estimate conservation performance improvement, determine land treatment eligibility and ranking score and establish an annual payment. Based on the ranking, the application is Pre –approved and an On-site Field Verification is conducted to check if resources inventory information was accurate prior to contract approval.
Applicants must meet the following CStP requirements: Be an operator in the FSA farm records management system (Owners can be participants). Operation includes all agricultural or forestry land operated where the operator has control for the contract term, be in compliance with Highly Erodible and Wetland Conservation provisions and not exceed the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limitations set by Congress.
CStP provides participants a broaden amount of benefits such as: delivers new conservation; expands to include forestry producers that produce greater environmental benefits; improves air, soil, and water quality; creates and enhances wildlife habitat; addresses global climate change; and encourages energy conservation and production.
For more information please visit our office or contact us at (410) 822-1577 x 3 or visit the NRCS web site at www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/new_csp/csp.html.
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