WASHINGTON D.C. — The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) has published an updated version of its popular Farmers’ Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program. The guide is intended to help family farmers, ranchers and foresters understand the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) enrollment process.

The NSAC is an alliance of grassroots organizations that advocate for federal policy reform to advance the sustainability of agriculture, food systems, natural resources and rural communities.

“This is a new edition of that guide, based on information that we have gathered over the course of the first three signups in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and also updated in accordance with changes that have been made to the program by USDA since then,” said Greg Fogel, policy associate with NSAC.

The CSP is one of a number of working lands conservation programs implemented through USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Fogel said. Its primary focus is management practices.

“CSP actually pays producers for environmental outcomes,” he explained. “The way those actions are measured is a complicated process using a tool developed at USDA. The idea is that points are awarded for certain conservation outcomes, be it habitat conservation, water quality improvement or soil quality improvement.”

The revised guide includes step-by-step enrollment guidance, key definitions and helpful hints, Fogel said. It also includes a new five-page section with data analysis of the program’s first two signup periods in 2009 and 2010.

“There is a section dedicated to and reporting on that new data, on how the program is working and whether it is accomplishing its goals,” he added.

In three years of operation the program has enrolled nearly 30,000 farmers and ranchers operating more than 37.5 million acres of farm and ranch land that is now under five-year, renewable CSP conservation contracts. Individual farmer contracts are capped at $40,000, with the average contract currently running between $15,000-$20,000 a year.

The new guide explains the program components. One of the key pieces of the CSP is it pays both for the implementation of new conservation practices, which are called enhancements, and for the maintenance and improvement of existing conservation practices, Fogel said.

“Through CSP, USDA offers support for what one might consider more traditional conservation practices, but also for advanced stewardship practices which they call enhancements that go above and beyond.”

This guide would be useful for researchers and even policymakers because it goes into much detail on what the program is and how it works, Fogel explained. Parts of the program are complicated and the guide makes them understandable.

CSP is a continuous signup program, meaning producers may apply to enroll at any time. There is generally a cutoff date, however, at which point NRCS will rank all proposals on hand, based on environmental benefits, and determine which will be awarded contracts for that year. NRCS has not yet made any announcements but it is likely the 2012 cutoff dates will be early in the that calendar year.

The Farmers’ Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program is available for download at the NSAC publications page, at www.sustainable agriculture.net/publications

Printed copies of the guide may also be purchased. For information email NSAC at intern@sustainableagriculture.net