Conservation Security Program (CsP)

The Conservation Security Program (CSP) is the nation’s first comprehensive stewardship incentive program. Created by the 2002 Farm Bill, the program rewards farmers and ranchers for producing the higest levels of environmental and conservation benefits on their working lands. It provides producers with financial assistance to maintain existing conservation practices, in addition to encouraging them to implement new practices that will provide increased levels of environmental benefits. Participation is offered in priority watersheds and payment contracts are for 5 to 10 years.

AFT's Recommendations

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) issued an amended interim final rule in March 2005 to solicit public comments on its proposed implementation strategy. AFT’s comments recommended that NRCS implement the program in a manner that is national in scope, financially attractive to producers and predictable.

AFT urged NRCS to eliminate restrictions that limit CSP enrollment to select watersheds and encouraged the agency to utilize an allocation system that ensures that CSP is implemented in all states. AFT requested that the agency remove the contract payment limitation from the final rule and provide producers with meaningful program payments. AFT also urged NRCS to recognize the diverse nature of agricultural operations by making a broad array of conservation practices and systems eligible for CSP payments.

Background

In May 2004, NRCS released its plan for the selection of watersheds and the system of enrollment categories that will be used for identifying, classifying and prioritizing CSP participants. According to the plan, the selection of different watersheds for each sign-up period would provide all qualified farmers and ranchers with an opportunity to participate in CSP over the next eight years. NRCS used the watershed selection process to identify the 18 priority watersheds that were eligible for CSP in FY 2004. An additional 202 watersheds were eligible for the 2005 sign-up. In 2006, producers in 110 new watersheds will be eligible for the program.

In addition to the proposed priority watershed approach and system of enrollment categories, the amended interim final rule issued in March 2005 included variable enhancement payment rates for existing conservation practices and also established a cap on the amount of enhancement payments that a producer can receive. The amended rule also proposed to use a reduction factor on stewardship payments of 0.25 for Tier I contracts, 0.50 for Tier II contracts and 0.75 for Tier III contracts. AFT encouraged NRCS to provide producers with meaningful program payments by removing the stewardship payment reduction factor and eliminating the variable payment rates and caps on enhancement payments.

The amended interim final rule continued to limit participation in the CSP to producers in identified priority watersheds. AFT’s comments on the amended interim final rule for the CSP reflected our belief that the program should be available to farmers and ranchers in every region of the country.

For additional information on CSP, go to the NRCS Web site.