From the National Association of Conservation Districts.
The 2018 Farm Bill was passed nearly two years ago, and efforts to implement this piece of legislation still continue today. In the past few weeks, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has finalized the regulations for two of the biggest conservation programs in the farm bill – the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
The 2018 Farm Bill made some significant changes, including funding cuts to CSP. Changes to the program include:
• Removing the requirement of $18 average payment per acre;
• Eliminating automatic renewals in the program;
• Authorizing a few special "initiatives" with increased payment rates, including a comprehensive conservation plan, cover crops, resource crop rotations, and advanced grazing management;
• Changing application ranking to focus more on the outcomes of practices;
• Directing the secretary to streamline and coordinate EQIP and CSP and to manage the program to enhance soil health; and
• Creating a new “Grasslands Conservation Initiative” within CSP, intended to protect grazing lands and improve soil, water, and wildlife resources on land with base acres that have not been planted in 10 years.
Environmental Quality Incentives Programs (EQIP)
Unlike CSP, EQIP received a boost in funding in the 2018 Farm Bill. Other changes to the program include:
• Authorizing new conservation activity plans, including conservation planning assessment, soil health planning, resource-conserving, crop rotation planning, and precision conservation management planning;
• Authorizing soil testing and soil remediation as a practice;
• Cutting the livestock set-aside from 60 percent to 50 percent and increasing the wildlife set aside from five percent to 10 percent annually; and
• Retaining many of the other “carve-outs” or “set-asides” in the program, which makes it more difficult for program priorities to be set at the local level.
Looking Ahead
USDA is still finalizing the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Conservation Reserve Program, and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
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