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The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resources concerns.
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Fiscal Year 2023 and 2024 Missouri CSP Deadlines
NRCS accepts applications for CSP on a continuous basis throughout the year. We announce signup cutoff deadlines as funds become available.
CSP Classic and CSP IRA (Inflation Reduction Act)-Classic
FY 2023 Batching Dates:
- November, 18, 2022
- April 21, 2023
- June 9, 2023
CSP offers opportunities for producers to expand on existing conservation efforts by applying new conservation practices, enhancements and bundles. These new activities will help enhance natural resources and improve the operation.
If you decide to apply for CSP, the local NRCS conservation planner will have a one-on-one consultation with you to evaluate your current management system and the natural resources on your land. You will then work with the NRCS conservation planner to select new CSP conservation activities based on your management objectives for your operation.
Once you choose the conservation practices or activities that best fit, and if your application is selected for funding, CSP offers annual payments for implementing these practices on your land and operating and maintaining existing conservation efforts.
Want to take it a step further? CSP also offers bundles where you can select a suite of enhancements and receive a higher payment rate.
CSP Renewal
FY 2024 Cutoff Date: April 28, 2023
Producers are eligible to submit for renewal if they have an existing, active CSP contract enrolled as a 2019 Classic or 2019 Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) CSP and it is expiring in 2023.
CSP Overview
CSP helps you build on your existing conservation efforts while strengthening your operation.
General Information
How to Get Started
Benefits
Contracts
Renewals
Technical Assistance
Fact Sheets
Ready to get started?
Contact your local service center to start your application.
How to Get Assistance
Do you farm or ranch and want to make improvements to the land that you own or lease?
Natural Resources Conservation Service offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
To get started with NRCS, we recommend you stop by your local NRCS field office. We’ll discuss your vision for your land.
NRCS provides landowners with free technical assistance, or advice, for their land. Common technical assistance includes: resource assessment, practice design and resource monitoring. Your conservation planner will help you determine if financial assistance is right for you.
We’ll walk you through the application process. To get started on applying for financial assistance, we’ll work with you:
- To fill out an AD 1026, which ensures a conservation plan is in place before lands with highly erodible soils are farmed. It also ensures that identified wetland areas are protected.
- To meet other eligibility certifications.
Once complete, we’ll work with you on the application, or CPA 1200.
Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they’re considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time.
As part of the application process, we’ll check to see if you are eligible. To do this, you’ll need to bring:
- An official tax ID (Social Security number or an employer ID)
- A property deed or lease agreement to show you have control of the property; and
- A farm tract number.
If you don’t have a farm tract number, you can get one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm tract number if you’re interested in financial assistance.
NRCS will take a look at the applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, the amount of conservation benefits the work will provide and the needs of applicants.
If you’re selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done.
Once you sign the contract, you’ll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you’ll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications.