Your Stewardship Goals. Our Assistance.
Have you ever looked across your property and thought about some land management goals you would like to take to the next level? Maybe we can help.
No one knows more about your land than you do, and no one knows more about conservation than we do. Together we can develop a plan tailored to your land and your goals to help you increase productivity and protect the value of your land.
Our Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) helps you build on your existing conservation efforts while strengthening your operation. Whether you are looking to improve grazing conditions, increases crop yields, or develop wildlife habitat, we can custom design a CSP plan to help you meet those goals. We can help you schedule timely planting of cover crops, develop a grazing plan that will improve your forage base, implement no-till to reduce erosion or manage forested areas in a way that benefits wildlife habitat. If you are already taking steps to improve the condition of the land, chances are CSP can help you find new ways to meet your goals.
Sustainable Production
CSP is for working lands. It is the largest conservation program in the United States with 70 million acres of productive agricultural and forest land enrolled in CSP. Thousands of people have made the choice to voluntarily enroll in the program because it helps them enhance natural resources and improve their business operation.
Some of the benefits include:
- Improved cattle gains per acre
- Increased crop yields
- Decreased inputs
- Wildlife population improvements
- Better resilience to weather extremes
Through CSP, we can help build your business while implementing conservation practices that help ensure the sustainability of your entire operation. Good land stewardship not only conserves the natural resources on your farm, ranch or forest, it also provides multiple benefits to local communities, including better water and air quality and wildlife habitat, as well as food and fiber.
Additional CSP information, including the following, can be found on NRCS' National CSP Website
- Conservation Measurement Tool Questions
- CSP Background Information/Presentations
- CSP Fact Sheet
- CSP Self-Screening Checklist
- National Job Sheets
General Signup Application Deadline
Applications submitted by May 10, 2019 will be evaluated to be considered for funding in the 2019-1 signup. Applications received after that date will be accepted and evaluated for future rounds of funding.
Applicants must also meet CSP participant eligibility requirements by May 31, 2019 for an application submitted by May 10, 2019. This means applicants must meet eligibility for:
- Establish Farm Records with FSA
- Adjusted Gross Income requirements
- HELC/WC Compliance
Applicants who do not meet these requirements by May 31, 2019 will not be considered for funding in the application period. Applicants should file the appropriate forms to establish eligibility as soon as possible after submitting an application. Form NRCS-CPA-1200 Conservation Program Application contains more information about the forms necessary to file to establish eligibility. The necessary forms are available at your local USDA Service Center.
Certain eligibility requirements are self-certified on form NRCS-CPA-1200 (such as control of land and permission to install structural practices) and are not required to be substantiated by the May 31, 2019 deadline. However, these eligibility requirements must be verified before an application can be approved.
2019-1 Renewal Applications
The 2018 Agriculture Act removed authority for the NRCS to offer CSP renewals in 2019 for the 2014-1 signup period. In it’s place, the agency will be offering an extension of these existing agreements for one year and the opportunity to renew during the 2020-1 renewal period. Please contact your local office for more information regarding 2019-1 renewals.
CSP - Grassland Conservation Initiative
CSP-GCI is a new program authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill. CSP-GCI provides financial assistance to producers to protect grazing uses; conserve and improve soil, water, and wildlife resources on eligible land. Enrollment is limited to those producers who FSA has determined as having base acres that qualify as eligible land for the program. Eligible land consists of cropland for which base acres have been maintained and documented as grass, idle, or fallow from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2017. The application deadline for the CSP-GCI 2019-1 signup has been updated to July 19th.
CSP Enhancement Fact sheets
Conservation Activity Evaluation Tool (CAET) Questions for IN
The following questions will be used to evaluate each land use and management system on eligible applications to see if they meet the minimum stewardship threshold criteria for CSP.
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2018-1 RCPP CSP |
2019-1 Renewal CSP |
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CAET Information
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CAET Information
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CAET Information
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Ranking Information
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Ranking Information
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Renewal applications are not ranked.
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CSP Stewardship Eligibility
- Address a minimum of two resource concerns at the time of application for each management system.
- Meet or exceed one additional resource concern through the adoption of additional conservation activities which include practices and enhancements.
CSP Renewal Stewardship Eligibility
- Must maintain existing conservation activities
- Exceed the stewardship threshold of two targeted resource concerns that were met at the time of application, or;
- Meet or exceed the stewardship threshold for at least two additional targeted resource concerns.
Renewals Payment for Performance Payment Rates
CSP Payments Types
CSP offers financial assistance to eligible participants through two possible types of payments:
- Annual payment for installing and adopting additional activities; and improving, maintaining, and managing existing activities.
- Supplemental payment for the adoption of resource-conserving crop rotations.
Payments will be made for conservation performance payments points estimated for each agricultural operation by the Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT). Conservation performance points are unique for each agricultural operation and will be based on existing and proposed conservation activities.
Contracts cover the eligible land in the entire agricultural operation and are for five years. For all contracts entered into, CSP payments to a person or legal entity may not exceed $40,000 in any fiscal year, and $200,000 during any five-year period. Each CSP contract will be limited to $200,000 over the term of the initial contract period.
Indiana's 2017 Renewals CSP Priority Resource Concerns
Agriculture
- Soil Erosion
- Soil Quality
- Water Quality
- Animals
- Plants
Non-Industrial Private Forestland (NIPF)
- Soil Erosion
- Water Quality
- Animals
- Plants
- Air Quality
Enhancement Activity Job Sheets
"Enhancement" means a type of conservation activity used to treat natural resources and improve conservation performance. Enhancements are installed at a level of management intensity that exceeds the sustainable level for a given resource concern. Those directly related to a practice standard are applied in a manner that exceeds the minimum treatment requirements of the standard. Click on the topics below for national enhancement activity job sheets with Indiana supplements when applicable.
** The CSP Wildlife Plant Species List will be needed for various job sheets.
2014 CSP Activity Sheets
2015 and 2016 Renewals CSP Activity Sheets
2017 CSP National Enhancements and Indiana Supplements
2018 National Enhancements and Indiana Supplements
2019 National Enhancements and Indiana Supplements
Supplemental Information
How to Apply for CSP
To learn more about how to apply for CSP, please visit NRCS' National CSP website
Contact Information
To apply for EQIP, contact your local service center.
If you have questions about the information on this page, please contact Adam Heichelbech.
