Conservation Security Program (CSP) Sign Up Begins March 28

COLUMBIA, MO, March 18, 2005- Farmers and ranchers in seven Missouri watersheds can sign up for the Conservation Security Program (CSP) between March 28 and May 27 at local offices of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The seven watersheds are among 220 across the nation eligible to participate in CSP this year. Eighteen of those watersheds were eligible last year, and 202 others were added for 2005.

Farmers and ranchers in the Little River Ditches Watershed, which was the only Missouri watershed eligible for CSP in 2004, may participate in this sign up if they do not have current CSP contracts.

The Missouri watersheds eligible for CSP include 11,291 farms and 4.2 million acres. They are:

• North Fork Salt (parts of Adair, Macon, Shelby, Schuyler, Knox and Monroe counties); 1,310 farms, 436,000 acres.
• South Fork Salt (parts of Macon, Randolph, Monroe, Boone, Callaway, Shelby and Audrain counties); 1,976 farms, 598,000 acres.
• Blackwater (parts of Saline, Lafayette, Pettis, Cooper and Johnson counties); 2,762 farms, 791,000 acres.
• Platte (parts of Nodaway, Andrew, DeKalb, Clinton, Clay, Platte, Worth, Gentry and Buchanan counties as well as parts of Iowa); 2,408 Missouri farms, 598,000 acres.
• Lower St. Francis (parts of Bollinger, Wayne, Stoddard, Butler and Dunklin counties as well as parts of Arkansas); 492 Missouri farms, 229,000 acres.
• New Madrid-St. Johns (parts of Scott, Mississippi and New Madrid counties); 515 farms, 415,000 acres.
• Little River Ditches (parts of Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Scott, Stoddard, Pemiscot, Dunklin and New Madrid counties in Missouri, and in Craighead, Mississippi and Poinsett counties in Arkansas); 1,828 farms, 1.1 million acres.

CSP is a voluntary program that supports ongoing conservation stewardship of agricultural working lands and enhances the condition of America’s natural resources. It compensates farmers for maintaining and enhancing natural resources.

Participants can enroll in one of three tiers in the program, depending on the extent of the conservation treatment in place on their farms or ranches. Payments will be based in part on this existing conservation treatment as well as their willingness to undertake additional environmental enhancements.

Self-assessment workbooks are available from NRCS offices and from the NRCS website. The workbooks help farmers and ranchers determine if their operations meet the sign-up criteria of CSP. They include a self-screening questionnaire for each land use to be enrolled.

A self assessment is required as part of the application process. Applicants must submit their completed self-assessment workbooks to local NRCS offices during the sign-up period. NRCS then determines each applicant’s eligibility. 

Producers who do not meet the CSP sign-up criteria may be eligible for other USDA programs that can help them achieve a higher level of conservation that would make them eligible for CSP in the future. NRCS provides up-to-date technology, tools and resource information to meet the conservation needs of the nation’s producers.

CSP will continue to be offered each year, on a rotational basis, in as many watersheds as funding allows. For more information about CSP and other NRCS programs see http://www.mo.nrcs.usda.gov/programs or contact the NRCS office serving your county. Look in the phone book under “U.S. Government, Department of Agriculture,” or access this website: http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=MO.

Missouri CSP information

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