Last week the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
announced updates to the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) including more
than 200 enhancements, nearly double the previous number. These are the
specific conservation management activities that farmers and ranchers agree to
implement that take them to the next level—beyond minimum conservation
standards.
Based on acreage, CSP is now USDA’s largest conservation program. Designed
for conservation-minded producers with a good track record, the program offers five-year
contracts featuring annual payments with the possibility of renewal at the end
of the contract period, as long as participants agree to implement additional
practices and maintain the ones they have in place.
In addition to the enhancements, NRCS has clarified and automated its
ranking system so that producers can determine earlier in the application
process what measures, now directly linked to NRCS conservation practice
standards, have the highest priority. (In full disclosure the actual ranking
system has not been publicly released for scrutiny to date.) Under the 2010
Farm Bill, CSP participants must address two resource concerns on their entire
operation in their application and add an additional resource concern during the
course of their five-year contract. The program updates also give greater
importance to state and local priorities.
These are much-needed reforms, and I commend NRCS for its thorough
review of the program and the weight it has given to producer comments and
recommendations in updating it. The test, of course, will be whether the
changes prove truly easier to implement consistently at the county level and
how effective the measures are in achieving conservation objectives. One of the
concerns with CSP has been that its complexity has made it difficult to provide
the same program across the country. I am hopeful that these changes will prove
to increase simplicity and transparency, both for farmers and ranchers and the
NRCS staff charged with making the program work.
I particularly like the strategy of aligning the enhancements with the
NRCS conservation practice standards that many producers are already familiar
with. This also serves to connect CSP directly with other conservation programs
like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). That’s common sense
since CSP participants are building on a foundation of conservation likely
established with the help of other agricultural conservation programs.
Another approach that NRCS has taken that I applaud is providing a
nominal payment for maintaining current conservation practices. This places the
emphasis where it should be—focusing the bulk of the funding on continuous
improvement—and addresses criticism that the funds were not buying sufficient
additional conservation.
I believe these changes will make CSP more transparent to everyone and
easier to administer. Aligning the enhancements with conservation practice
standards should make it possible to evaluate the specific impact from CSP to
water quality, soil quality and reductions of greenhouse gases. Thus we can
determine what benefits taxpayers are receiving from their investment in the
program.
One concern I have is whether the changes have fully incorporated the
latest in modern agricultural and conservation practices. How can we ensure
that enhancements keep up with the latest and best approaches to modern farming
techniques as well as environmental science? Further we await the release of
the enhancement payment rates to see if the payments properly reflect the costs
of the enhancement.
CSP has become the flagship agricultural conservation program, spurring
true stewards of the land to go further and rewarding them for doing so. NRCS
has made significant improvements, and I am eager to see how well they work in
practice in making this vital program more effective, efficient and accessible
to producers.
These changes and improvements come at a critical time, as Congress is
already lurching toward the rewrite of the next farm bill. If NRCS’s reforms
got it right, CSP will be well positioned for the next farm bill. If the agency
got it wrong, or the changes don’t improve the transparency, performance and
accountability of the program, it will make for a rocky time for NRCS’s largest
conservation program.
About the author: Bruce I. Knight, Principal, Strategic Conservation
Solutions, was the Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 2006 to 2009. From 2002 to 2006,
Knight served as Chief of Natural Resources Conservation Service. The South
Dakota native worked on Capitol Hill for Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, Rep.
Fred Grandy, Iowa, and Sen. James Abdnor, South Dakota. In addition, Knight
served as vice president for public policy for the National Corn Growers
Association and also worked for the National Association of Wheat Growers. A
third-generation rancher and farmer and lifelong conservationist, Knight
operates a diversified grain and cattle operation using no-till and rest
rotation grazing systems
#30