Conservation Stewardship Program

The Conservation Stewardsip Program is a voluntary program that encourages agricultural and forestry producers to address resource concerns by
(1) undertaking additional conservation activities and
(2) improving and maintaining existing conservation systems. CSP provides financial and technical assistance to help land stewards conserve and enhance soil, water, air, and related natural resources on their land.

Eligibility

CSP is availabe to all producers, regarldesss of operatio size or crops produced, in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, ad the Caribbean and Pacific Island areas.
Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie land, imporved pastureland, rangeland, nonindustrial private forest land, and agricultural land under the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe.
Applicants may include individuals, legal entities, joint operations, or Indian tribes. They must:

• Be the operator of record in the USDA farm records management system for the eligible land being offered for enrollment;
• Have effective control of the land for the term of the proposed contract;
• Be in compliance with the highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions of 7 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 12 and adjusted gross income provisions of 7 CFR part 1400;
• Include the eligible land in their entire agricultural or forestry operation.

Benefits to Participants

CSP pays participants for conservation performance – the higher the performance, the higher the payment. It provides two possible types of payments. An annual payment is available for installing new conservation activities and maintaining existing practices. A supplemental payment is avilable to participants who also adopt a resource conserving crop rotation.
Through five-year contracts, NRCS makes payments as soon as practical after October 1 of each fiscal year for contract activities installed and maintained in the previous year.
Payment Limit – A person or legal entity may have more than one CSP contract but, for all CSP contracts combined, may not receive more than $40,000 in any year or more than $200,000 during any five-year period.
Contract Limit – The contract limit is the same as the payment limit except in the case of joint operations, for which the contract limit is $80,000 per fiscal year and $400,000 over the term of the contract period.
Payment limits and contract limits do not apply in case of federally recognized Indian tribes or Alaska Native corporations.

How CSP Works

NRCS makes CSP availabe on a nationwide basis through continuous sign-up, with announced cut-off dates for ranking and funding applications. CSP addresses seven resources concerns (soil quality, soil erosion, water quality, water quantity, air quality, plant resources, and animal resources) as well as energy. Each NRCS State Conservationist, in consultation with the State Technical Committee and local working groups, focuses the program on three to five priority resource concerns for their State.
Applications are evaluated and ranked relative to other applications that address similar resource concerns in that State. In the ranking process, producers get credit both for conservation measurers they have already implemented and for new measures they agree to add. Agricultural land and nonindustrial private forest land applications are ranked separatley.
Potential applicants are encourage to determine whether CSP is the right program for them by completing the self-screen checklist and downloadign the CSP Conservation Activity List to idenfity new conservation acitivities they might install. Because some conservation enhancements work better when implemented as a group, the activity list identifies enhancement “bundles” the receive both highter rankings and higher payments.