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September 25, 2009 in Food + Ag politics, resources

Deadline to Apply for Conservation Stewardship Program Approaching — September 30, 2009
NRCS Simplifies Initial Application Process

Farmers who are interested in applying for the 2009 Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) have just a few days left before the September 30 deadline to send in the basic 3 page contract program application to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Once NRCS receives your application, you will work with them to complete the CSP sign-up process.

Update: Farmers do not need to have a Farm Service Agency (FSA) record established by the September 30 deadline. You still need to establish an FSA record to complete the CSP sign up process.

New Resources: The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s Farmers’ Guide to the 2009 Conservation Stewardship Program is now available on its website.

Also, check out OFRF’s CSP Resource Page for detailed information on the CSP application process and resources to assist farmers.

What is CSP?

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a comprehensive working lands program rewarding producers for practices that improve natural resources and the environment. CSP provides technical and financial assistance to producers for maintaining existing conservation measures and for adopting additional conservation practices.

Benefits for Organic Farmers

CSP rewards producers for the conservation benefits of their existing organic farming and ranching systems. Organic practices are among more than 70 activities CSP targets. Some of these include organic cropping and livestock systems, establishing pollinator habitat, conservation tillage, resource-conserving crop rotations, rotational grazing, and continuous cover cropping. Practices that sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gases are also rewarded. In addition, the 2008 Farm Bill requires NRCS to provide technical assistance specific to organic producers.

To learn more about the Conservation Stewardship Program, including detailed instructions on how to submit an application, please visit our CSP Resource Page.

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Thank you once again for all of your advocacy work. Please send questions and comments to Tracy Lerman, OFRF Policy Organizer: tracy@ofrf.org.

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