Southern SAWG Special Bulletin
 
Sign Up for CSP by February 27

 

 

You can sign up for CSP funding at any time, but to to be considered for funding this year you need to get into your local NRCS office and fill out the first form by February 27!
Apply for Enrollment in the Federal Conservation Stewardship Program
Photographer :  Beverly Mosely
Derinda Smith (left), Arkansas NRCS district conservationist and Mildred Griggs of Marianna, visit about resource conservation practices for optimizing vegetable production under a high tunnel. Photo by Beverly Mosely, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) rewards producers for the conservation and environmental benefits they produce on their working agricultural lands; all private agricultural land, including cropland, pasture, and rangeland, is eligible to enroll in CSP. For example, CSP contract-holding farmers can receive payments for actively managing, maintaining, and expanding conservation activities like cover crops, rotational grazing, ecologically-based pest management, buffer strips, and the transition to organic farming. 

 

Details on this year's program are available for free in an Information Alert published by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Farmers and ranchers must submit initial applications to their local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office by Feb 27 to have their applications considered for 2015. Applications will be scored and ranked based on farmers' current and planned on-farm conservation activities, and the applications offering the highest level of environmental benefits will be awarded CSP contracts.

 

CSP contract holders that enrolled in 2011 are now in the final year of their five-year contract and are therefore eligible to renew for another five years. Initial requests to renew must be submitted to local NRCS offices by March 31.

 

CSP is the nation's largest conservation program by acreage and is widely popular among farmers and ranchers. Since the program began in 2009, nearly 70 million acres of farm and ranch land have been enrolled in the program.

 

Producers are encouraged to fill out the  NRCS' Self-Screening Checklist to help determine if CSP is right for their farm.

February 2015
Southern SAWG logo
Find Your Local
NRCS Office


Click on the map above to find an office serving your area along with information on how to contact them.

 

Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter View our videos on YouTube
Southern SAWG
PO Box 1552, Fayetteville, AR 72702
479-251-8310