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Regenerative Pilot Program

Regenerative Agriculture is a conservation management approach that emphasizes natural resources through improved soil health, water management, and natural vitality for the productivity and prosperity of American agriculture and communities.

New NRCS Regenerative Pilot Program

In December 2025, NRCS launched the NRCS Regenerative Pilot Program, a farmer first, outcomes-based approach to conservation designed to return the agency to its core mission – helping people help the land. NRCS is investing $700 million to specifically support regenerative agriculture, including:

Side view of soil and plant roots

This pilot program addresses whole-farm resource concerns through support for voluntary regenerative agriculture conservation plans. It also puts American farmers first as a part of the solution to Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) by supporting access to American-grown whole foods, critical to addressing the chronic disease crisis nationwide.

For too long, divided and highly specific funding pools have unintentionally encouraged isolated, practice-by-practice conservation, rather than holistic management. By integrating bundled regenerative practices into single applications, closing program loopholes, and recognizing outcomes, NRCS will deliver lasting benefits for farmers, natural resources, and the American consumer.

stream with duckweed and underwater plants

Emphasizing regenerative agriculture builds upon NRCS’s 90 years of existing conservation work by restoring land health, improving long-term productivity, and ensuring American grown production for the future. 

For Producers, this means:

  • Bundled practices will be integrated into a single application, making programs easier to access and more impactful;
  • Whole-farm holistic conservation planning is the centerpiece of the program, ensuring that all resource concerns (soil, water, and natural vitality) are addressed together, not piecemeal;
  • Conservation planning and producer objectives drive the process, ensuring site-specific solutions that work for the producer;
  • Outcomes are tracked, measured, and credited back to the farmer; and
  • Producers at every stage, from beginners just starting out with cover crops to advanced operations with years of conservation experience, will find a pathway through this pilot program.

For Consumers, this means:

  • The NRCS Regenerative Pilot Program puts American farmers first as a part of the solution to Make America Healthy Again;
  • Access to American-grown whole foods is critical to addressing the chronic disease crisis nationwide; and
  • Engaging the supply chain to give farmers assistance and credit for taking care of the soil, water, and land while productively bringing food to our tables, gives American consumers more access to healthy choices.

Advisory Council

NRCS is also setting up a Chief’s Advisory Council that gives farmers, consumers, and private partners a seat at the table, ensuring NRCS programs remain practical, transparent, and responsive to real-world needs. The Council will consist of 15 members – nine regenerative farmers representing production systems, three corporate supply-chain or consumer packaged goods (CPG) representatives, and three consumer or MAHA representatives. The Council will meet quarterly with the Chief of NRCS for one year.

Partnerships

Success depends on strong partnerships. NRCS will expand work with Technical Service Providers (TSPs) and local organizations to meet demand. In addition, NRCS’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (UAIP), supported by the UAIP Advisory Committee, will extend regenerative priorities into cities and communities, aligning with USDA’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda through programs like The People’s Garden.

More Information

Ready to get started?

Contact your local service center to start your application.

Find Your Local Service Center

USDA Service Centers are locations where you can connect with Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or Rural Development employees for your business needs. Enter your state and county below to find your local service center and agency offices. If this locator does not work in your browser, please visit offices.usda.gov.

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.

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how to get started

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 number.

If you don’t have a farm 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 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. View Application Ranking Dates by State.

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.