“We’re especially interested in proposals that involve collaboration among states, academia, producers and other stakeholders, and have state, multi-state or national significance,” says Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan.

According to the FY 2012 Application Guidelines, USDA also encourages research proposals involving direct marketing, value-added production,  and local food system development, especially those that stimulate rural economies.

Approximately $1.2 million for 25 grants is available for FY 2012.  Grants typically average $50,000, though USDA has funded proposals ranging from $11,000 to $135,000.  Interested parties can consult the list of previously funded projects, such as those found below:

• Louisiana – $30,511 to Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Crescent City Farmers Markets, Louisiana State University Sea Grant programs and Orleans Parish Firstline Schools, to survey school lunch directors in pilot parishes to determine demand for locally produced agricultural and fishery products, assess the capacity of local farmers and fishermen to fulfill the demand, and train local producers to identify new institutional and direct marketing opportunities.

• Michigan – $113,351 to Michigan State University to develop and test a comprehensive beef traceability model that could be implemented by Michigan beef producers, processors, retailers, and food service operators.

• Texas – $35,000 to Sam Houston State University to expand products marketed through farmers’ markets from socially disadvantaged groups through business planning and marketing workshops.

The application deadline is Friday, March 23, 2012.

For further information contact Janise Zygmont at USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service at 202-720-5024 or janise.zygmont@ams.usda.gov.

February 3, 2012

Contact: Helen Dombalis
202-547-5754

Farmers Speak to the Value of Their Value-Added Producer Grants
– USDA Announces Awards Today —

Washington, DC February 3, 2012 – Today USDA announced the recipients of the most recent rounds of Value-Added Producer Grants.  The awards, which cover two funding cycles, span 298 projects in 44 States and Puerto Rico and total $40.2 million in funding.  The Value-Added Producer Grants (VAPG) program provides competitive grants to individual independent agricultural producers, groups of independent producers, producer-controlled entities, and farmer or rancher cooperatives to create or develop value-added producer-owned businesses.

“Value-Added Producer Grants increase farmers’ income, establish jobs in rural communities, and expand food choices for American consumers,” notes Helen Dombalis, Policy Associate with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.  “This program is exactly what our country needs as we seek ways to stimulate our economy.”

VAPG grants may be used to fund business and marketing plans and feasibility studies or to acquire working capital to operate a value-added business venture or alliance.  Working capital applications must be supported by an independent feasibility study as well as a business plan.  This round of awardees includes 62 planning grants (21 percent of the total awards) and 236 working capital grants (79 percent of the total awards).

Planning Grants

Steve McKaskle of McKaskle Farms exemplifies the economic utility of VAPG planning grants.  His farm in Pemiscot, Missouri received a grant for $40,000 to evaluate the fiscal feasibility of purchasing milling equipment for rice, bread flour, and cornmeal; cleaning equipment for popcorn; and packaging equipment for all of their organic products.  McKaskle has already captured a relatively significant market; he sells in seven Whole Foods stores, two Fresh Markets, and several other health food and natural food stores.  The issue, he clarifies, is a lack of processing equipment and therefore missed financial opportunities: “We are growing popcorn and rice and we are selling it to a buyer who is cleaning, milling, and packaging it and then selling it back to us at three times the amount they are buying the original products from us.  We are taking a strong look at doing these things ourselves.”  And what will McKaskle do with his savings?  “Create more jobs.  We live in a poor county and want to help people on government assistance to break free from that.”

Cody Hopkins of Falling Sky Farm in Marshall, Arkansas, a small, diversified livestock farm, also received funding for a feasibility study.  There are currently no USDA poultry processing facilities in the state that will handle birds from independent growers.  Therefore, Hopkins will use his $98,500 grant to research the possibility of working with a group of farmers to develop such a facility, which “would allow [them] to process more chickens and cooperatively market those chickens.”  Demand is high for pastured chickens like those Hopkins and his wife Andrea Todt raise, which are moved daily to fresh pasture, keeping them off of their own manure, eliminating parasite concerns and thus the need for antibiotics and other medications.  There was a restaurant across state lines in Missouri wanting 10,000 such chickens, but without the USDA poultry processing facility Hopkins could not seize this economic opportunity.  He explains, “we are getting to a point where we need to have more infrastructure, and farmers are having to create it.”  As first generation farmers, Hopkins and Todt “didn’t start off with a farm or any other capital.  All the money [they] have access to has to go to operating expenses, and [they] didn’t have anything to leverage to build a facility.”  Beginning farmers face challenges in amassing capital and credit for their operations.  In the case of Falling Sky Farm and its “unorthodox” pastured chicken, Hopkins explains “a lot of lenders see us as risky, so the grant will help us assess the feasibility of our idea.”

Working Capital Grants

For recipients of VAPG working capital funds, the production benefits can be quickly realized.  Will Harris of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia received a grant for $300,000 for his pastured poultry production.  He spent a million and a half dollars building one of the only pastured poultry abattoirs, or slaughterhouses, in the Deep South.  Harris says the grant “will help get the facility going.”  Not only does Harris’s fifth generation farm invest in sustainable animal welfare and land usage practices, but it also invests in the economic sustainability of its community, currently providing 75 jobs and serving as the largest privately owned employer in the county.  Harris notes that his grant “makes it possible to continue to move our practices forward.”

Value-Added Producer Grants enable agricultural producers to attract new customers and thus to strengthen their revenues.  Explains Sharon Klay with Christian W. Klay Winery in Chalk Hill, Pennsylvania, the recipient of a VAPG for $24,888: “One of the aspects of our grant is to bring the public to our farm.  We are heavily oriented towards tourism; people are curious about grape growing and wine tasting.  The grant will broaden the appeal.”  Klay Winery’s VAPG funding will be used in the production of lavender to infuse into its wines and to use in public culinary classes.  These unique products and opportunities will undoubtedly expand the winery’s consumer traffic and increase its bottom line.

Top States

The states with the largest number of VAPG awards from today’s announcement are Wisconsin (28), Oregon (23), New York (21), California (17), and Missouri (15).  NSAC will post more a detailed breakout of VAPG award data on its website, www.sustainableagriculture.net in the near future once additional information is released by USDA.

2012 Farm Bill

NSAC is calling on Congress to renew and expand funding for this program as it drafts the next Farm Bill.  Illustrating need and demand for the program, this year USDA could fund less than half of the 511 project applications received, which totaled over $63.7 million in requested funding.  NSAC advocates for the new Farm Bill to renew mandatory funding for VAPG at $30 million a year, less than the 2002 Farm Bill mandatory funding level for the program but more than the program receives currently.  Several bills pending in Congress, including the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act as well as the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act, propose this funding level as well as policy improvements to the program.  Both bills are aimed at inclusion in the 2012 Farm Bill.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities.

###

By Patty Cantrell

Nic Welty employs himself full time year-round raising lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens in three low-cost passive solar greenhouses, which together cover less than one acre of land.

His Nine Bean Rows farm near Traverse City, MI, is one of many smaller, diversified, often first-generation farms in the country that defy expectations, particularly among bankers and others with money needed to finance the new food enterprises.

Most find it difficult to pencil out the possibility that such a niche farm business could reliably make enough money to grow.  Yet as Welty explains, “This business is good enough to take a cash advance on a credit card and run with it.”

The fact that many smaller niche farmers must do just that is alarming to a growing group of activist lenders and small farm business advisors.  They say it’s high time to line up resources behind the nation’s new farm entrepreneurs and the new jobs, food supply, and local commerce they are building.

Lender Re-Training. “There is a critical need to provide business and financial support to this sector to help it grow, prosper, and meet its economic and production potential,” says Denise Dukette, a New England Bank vice president.

Dukette is part of a team of experts who will this year conduct a series of workshops for nonprofit loan funds and other mission-driven Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs.  Their national association, the Opportunity Finance Network, will offer the training on farm production lending as part of a capacity building effort funded by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative.

Dukette and colleagues came together last year to assess the situation for small- and mid-scale diversified farms, and find leverage points for change.  Their Financing Farming in the U.S. report found that building knowledge and capacity on the lender side of the farm financing equation is just as critical as building farmer’s financial skills.

“We want to make sure that a farm with a business model that works, and strong business management capacity, can communicate with lenders and get a fair shake in a loan,” says Mark Cannella, a farm business advisor with University of Vermont Extension.

A new USDA Economic Research Service study points to the economic development potential: The local food market that such entrepreneurs are largely forging is growing rapidly and amounts to nearly $5 billion annually, four times higher than previous estimates.

With the next Farm Bill on the horizon, there are new opportunities for Congress to support local and regional food systems.  The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act, introduced in November 2011 by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1), contains several provisions to bolster funding for local food infrastructure and markets.  One provision, for instance, would increase Business and Industry (B&I) federal loan guarantees  for local and regional food enterprises.   Another would require Farm Credit System lenders to implement a program for providing credit to farmers producing for the local market and to undertake initiatives to improve local food infrastructure.

Capital Jam. One problem is that few commercial bankers are familiar with farming anymore given consolidation over the years in both banking and agriculture, says Susan Cocciarelli of the Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State University. With funding from the WK Kellogg Foundation’s Food and Community Program, Cocciarelli co-convened the Financing Farming in the U.S. team with Dorothy Suput of The Carrot Project, a small-farm financing organization in the Northeast.

“Financial institutions have to have good information about the sector they’re lending into,” Cocciarelli says of the familiarity gap between lenders and new farmers.
Another small-farm financing challenge comes in the form of policies and practices among traditional farm lenders and agencies. Their loan criteria and other measures reflect where agriculture has been over the past decades of industrialization, not where a good portion of agriculture may be going with local and regional market opportunities.

Oregon farmer Zoe Bradbury ran into that problem in 2008. Her story is featured in a new report from the National Young Farmers Coalition about barriers to success for beginning farmers.

After investing her savings in startup equipment and supplies, Bradbury sought a small irrigation loan from the USDA Farm Service Agency. She ended up taking out a credit card cash advance instead, in large part because the local FSA office would only consider income projections based on low global commodity market prices for fruits and vegetables.

Yet Bradbury’s business is based on a much healthier diet of higher net revenues from direct-marketing produce at farmers markets and the like. She managed to pay down her debt before the credit card’s 18 percent interest rate kicked in a year later.

“It was the biggest, scariest financial risk I had ever taken,” Bradbury said. “I’d never been so far out on a limb.”

Growth Factor. Nic Welty has so far avoided the credit card risk so many others have had to take to finance their smaller diversified operations. But he’s wondering how he’ll finance further growth.

“It’s not so hard to get a loan for something solid (and saleable) like buildings and equipment,” he says. “But it’s almost impossible to get financing for the marketing, employee training, and other operational investments that will really make the difference.”

Patty Cantrell is a community organizer and a journalist focused on making the business case for local and regional food.  As Regional Food Solutions LLC, she works with nonprofit and educational clients to communicate new food and farm business options and public policy directions.

OREI is USDA’s flagship competitive research grants program dedicated to the investigation of organic systems.  OREI funds research and extension projects that provide the information that producers and processors need to be successful, improve their farming systems, and grow and market high quality organic agricultural products.

OREI has eight legislatively-defined goals, including:

1. Facilitating the development of organic agriculture production, breeding, and processing methods.
2. Evaluating the potential economic benefits to producers and processors who use organic methods.
3. Exploring international trade opportunities for organically grown and processed agricultural commodities.
4. Determining desirable traits for organic commodities.
5. Identifying marketing and policy constraints on the expansion of organic agriculture.
6. Conducting advanced on-farm research and development that emphasizes observation of, experimentation with, and innovation for working organic farms, including research relating to production and marketing and to socioeconomic conditions.
7. Examining optimal conservation and environmental outcomes relating to organically produced agricultural products.
8. Developing new and improved seed varieties that are particularly suited for organic agriculture.

Some changes to the FY 2012 Request for Applications:

• There will be a new project type offered to support development of data products and analytics on the impacts of research and extension activities funded by the Integrated Organic Program (Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative and Organic Transitions Program) on the organic industry.
• No planning grants will be offered this year.
• A new priority is included in this year’s RFA to fund projects that develop cultural practices and other allowable alternatives to substances recommended for removal from the National Organic Program’s National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.

NIFA will be accepting feedback on how future RFAs can be improved.  See page 2 of the RFA for more information on submitting public comments.

OREI is set to expire on Sept 30th, 2012, and must be reauthorized in order to be offered again next year.  NSAC and our allies in the organic sector have long been champions of this program, and will be working hard to advocate for its reauthorization with mandatory funding in the upcoming farm bill debate.  We will be counting on our members and network of organic producers and consumers who depend on the research outcomes of this program to speak up for this vital research program, and make sure their legislators know the value of federal investments in research on organic production methods.

For more information on the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative, see our Grassroots Guide.  To apply for funding, click here.

According to USDA’s vision of water quality credit trading, “a producer who implements conservation practices to reduce water quality pollutants can also benefit by generating water quality market credits that could be sold in an open market, which would reduce the costs of implementing and maintaining the conservation practices.”

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which administers the CIG program, will reserve half of the funding “for the design and implementation of a coordinated water quality trading system across the Chesapeake Bay region.”  The remaining $5 million will be available for credit trading demonstration projects across the country.

Project proposals are due March 2.  Projects will be selected for funding in July and will begin in September.  Grantees will be able to receive up to $2 million per grant; however, there is a 50 percent match (50 percent of the cost of the project must be covered by non-federal funds).  All projects must involve producers who are eligible for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

NRCS will be hosting an informational webinar on January 24 to outline the minimum qualification requirements and to answer proposal application questions.

NRCS requests CIG proposals for projects that:

• Support the completion of state water quality market rules and infrastructure needed to carry out water quality trading between point and non-point sources;

• Deploy and test tools and metrics needed for crediting and verifying the effectiveness of conservation practices on agricultural lands;

• Establish certification, registry and reporting systems; and

• Educate and reach out to agriculture and other sectors.

Project proposals must propose verification and monitoring protocols.  From what we can tell, NRCS is not providing national guidance on the development of those protocols.  There will also be no national formula to guide the valuation of trading credits.

See the Announcement of Program Funding for a more detailed description of what NRCS is looking for in a water quality credit trading project proposal.

Non-governmental organizations, state and local governments, Indian tribes, and interested individuals can apply online at grants.gov or read the full Announcement of Program Funding.

2012 Conservation Stewardship Program Sign-Up Extended

On Friday, December 9, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced that the fiscal year (FY) 2012 ranking period cutoff for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is January 13, 2012.  Given the busy holiday season time frame, on January 10 NRCS extended the ranking period cutoff date until January 27, 2012.

Interested farmers and ranchers now have until Friday, January 27, 2012, to complete the initial application form to compete for a spot in the 2012 enrollment class for the program.

To sign up, producers should visit their NRCS local service center.

* Continuous Sign-Up, But if You Miss the Cut-Off You Wait a Full Year – While CSP is a continuous sign-up program and producers can apply to enroll at any time of the year, NRCS applies a cut-off date for applications to be considered during a particular fiscal year.  Once the cut-off date is past, producers may continue to apply for the program, but they will not be considered for entry until the spring of the following year, in this case spring of 2013, so if you want to enroll in 2012 you must get an application filed by January 27.

Process and Timeline

The application form, available at the local NRCS office, is a fairly short and simple one.  Producers will also need to fill out the NRCS-CPA-1200 form.  It is the same short generic two page form that is used for all the NRCS conservation programs offering financial assistance to farmers and ranchers.

Prior to submitting the CSP application (or an application for any other USDA conservation assistance program) you must have a farm record number established with the Farm Service Agency.  If you do not currently have one, go to FSA first to establish your farm record.

All producers who have submitted their completed short conservation program application form by January 27 will then have until about early or mid March 2012 to sit down with their local NRCS staff person and fill out the CSP Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT) which will be used to determine program eligibility, environmental benefits ranking, and CSP payment amounts.  The CMT session will generally last an hour or more.

NRCS currently expects to complete the ranking process by early to mid March.  Farmers and ranchers with the highest environmental benefits scores on the CMT will be chosen for enrollment.  NRCS will then schedule on-farm verification visits and develop a CSP plan and contract for each enrollee.  The agency currently expects that process to last through mid to late April.  The first annual payments for five-year contracts awarded in this round will be made on or after October 1, 2012 and then every October 1 thereafter.

Background in Brief

The CSP is a working lands conservation program administered by NRCS and available on a nationwide basis.  CSP offers technical and financial assistance to farmers for adopting and maintaining high standards of resource conservation and environmental stewardship.  Assistance is geared to both the active management of existing conservation systems and for implementing new conservation activities on land in agricultural production.

In the first three enrollment years for CSP (2009, 2010, and 2011), enrolled 30,197 farmers and ranchers operating nearly 38 million acres of farm and ranch land that is now under five-year, renewable CSP conservation contracts.  For those three enrollment classes, annual CSP payments are currently over $510 million a year.

The 2012 sign-up will be somewhat smaller than the first three sign-ups, each of which enrolled very close to the 12.8 million acre per year level provided by the 2008 Farm Bill.  The 2012 iteration of CSP will have an enrollment cap between 9 and 10 million acres due to a budget cut to the program made by the FY 2012 Agricultural Appropriations Act.

Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie land, improved pastureland, rangeland, non-industrial private forest lands and agricultural land under tribal jurisdiction.  Cropped woodlands, marshes, land being used for livestock production and other private lands on which resource concerns can be addressed are also eligible.  Applicants must demonstrate they have effective control over these lands to be eligible, either through ownership or reasonably secure leases.

NRCS has developed a self screening checklist to help farmers decide if the program is right for them.  The checklist covers basic applicant and land eligibility issues as well as the stewardship threshold that CSP farmers must meet.  It’s a useful first step in deciding whether to apply.

CSP eligibility, ranking and payment levels are pegged to how well a farmer is addressing priority resource concerns on their farm.  Priority resource concerns are determined at the state level and can include, for example, soil quality, water quality, wildlife habitat, plant diversity and soil erosion.  Each state decides whether to assign priority resource concerns for the entire state or at the watershed level.  Each state or watershed has at least three priority resource concerns assigned to it.

You can find out the priority resource concerns in your state by visiting your state’s NRCS website and searching for “priority resource concerns.”   Be forewarned that not all states make this information easy to find.  If you do not find it easily on the website, call your local NRCS office for the information.

For each priority resource concern, NRCS has determined a “stewardship threshold” level for superior conservation.  To be eligible for the program, an applicant must already be addressing at least one priority resource concern to at least the stewardship threshold level and be willing to reach or exceed the stewardship threshold for at least one additional resource concern during the contract period.  In addition, applicants must agree to adopt additional conservation activities from amongst a pre-approved list during the first years of the contract.

Farmers and ranchers who do not meet the eligibility threshold may alternatively seek assistance for conservation improvements through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and then apply for CSP in a future year, using EQIP funding to help them reach the higher eligibility standard for CSP.

The national average payment to participants is $18 per acre; however, the actual payment received varies widely according to the type of land enrolled, the existing level of conservation, and the number and type of new enhancements and practices to be adopted.  Cropland generally receives the highest payment rate, with range and forest land at the lower end, and pasture in the middle.  Pastured cropland receives payment rates in between cropland and pasture rates.

A person or business entity may not receive more than $40,000 per year in CSP payments.  Joint multi-family operations are limited to not more than $80,000 per year.  For small acreage farms, USDA will make $1,000 the minimum contract payment if the operator is a beginning farmer or rancher, a socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher or a limited resource farmer or rancher.  Five percent of total CSP acres each are reserved for separate competitions among beginning farmers only and among socially disadvantaged (minority) farmers only.

Changes to CSP Conservation Enhancements and Practices

The list of conservation enhancements and conservation practices available for the 2012 sign-up includes 37 regular conservation practices, four more practices than were available in 2011.  In the list provided by NRCS, to find the conservation practices available, go to pages 16 through 19.

The 2012 sign-up also includes a total of 68 individual conservation enhancements, down from 94 in 2011.  Sixty of these enhancements were offered in the same form in 2011; however, eight enhancements were consolidated into four, and another four are entirely new.  NRCS discontinued 34 of the enhancements that it offered in 2011.  In the list provided by NRCS, the enhancements can be found on pages 1 through 11.

Beyond individual enhancements, the 2012 list of activities includes 10 enhancement bundles as opposed to the 20 bundles offered in 2011.  Bundles are groupings of conservation enhancements they agency feels may work well together on particular types of farms.  You can think of the two options – choosing from among the practices and enhancements, or choosing a bundle – as similar to ordering from the a la carte menu or choosing the “blue plate” special.  To view the bundles in the list provided by NRCS, go to pages 13 through 15.

The supplemental and special project activities available in 2011 were retained for 2012.  A substantial supplemental payment is available for adopting or improving a resource-conserving crop rotation, in recognition of the very important multiple resource benefits that longer more diverse rotations provide.  The special project activities are on-farm research and demonstrations of innovative conservation activities and on-farm pilot testing of proven conservation activities that do not yet have wide adoption rates.  The supplement and special project activities are listed on page 12 of the NRCS list.

Of particular note for livestock producers, NRCS has rearranged and rescored a number of grazing activities.  The 2012 sign up will combine what had been “ultra high-density grazing” and “intensive management of rotational grazing” into a new “intensive rotational grazing” enhancement (PLT16) that will yield a high environmental benefit score (45 points).  “Prescribed grazing” (CPS 528) will get 36 points while “grazing area monitoring to improve grazing management” (PLT02) will get 31 points.

Among the discontinued enhancements include “improve plant diversity and structure on non- cropped areas for wildlife food and habitat” (ANM08), “wildlife corridors” (ANM19), and “managing livestock access to water bodies” (WQL12).  NRCS added a wildlife component to “increased on-farm food production with edible woody buffer landscapes” enhancement (PLT15) in an effort to accomplish some of what ANM08 has accomplished, and some of the available conservation practices can provide some assistance with wildlife corridors.

The four newly-offered conservation practices for this year are “alley cropping,” “fencing,” “forest slash treatment,” and “watering facility.”

Of particular interest to organic farmers and others utilizing sustainable agriculture systems, CSP in 2012 will continue to offer:

• resource-conserving crop rotations
• providing nitrogen through legumes, manure, and compost
• intensive rotational grazing
• continuous no-till for organic systems
• intercropping
• continuous cover cropping
• pollinator and beneficial insect habitat
• biological suppression of weeds and invasives
• high level IPM
• IPM for organic systems
• non-chemical pest management for livestock
• transition to organic grazing systems
• transition to organic cropping systems
• on-farm composting
• multi-species perennials for biomass

CSP Enhancement and Practice Environmental Benefit Ranking Points

Each year, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition makes available a list of all the available options for enhancements, practices and bundles in the order of their environmental benefit scores.  The points scored by choosing different options help to determine whether an application will rank high enough to be selected for enrollment.

NRCS has not yet finished the scoring process for the 2012 sign-up and hence we cannot yet make the 2012 version of our chart available at this time.  We will, however, post that chart on our website (www.sustainableagriculture.net) just as soon as NRCS makes the numbers available.

Transparency Improvements

As mentioned above, the CSP Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT) is filled out by each applicant and is used to determine program eligibility, environmental benefits ranking, and CSP payment amounts.  The CMT covers both active management of existing conservation acticities on a farm as well as new enhancement and practice adoption.

Importantly, NRCS also made a number of changes for 2012 to the way the Conservation Measurement Tool works. The CMT will now display performance points in real time to allow producers to see the effects of their responses to questions and choices in the CMT on their score.  Producers will be able to perform “what-if” analysis as they fill out the CMT.  The tool will now also break down the applicants’ total ranking score to allow the participant to understand how past performance has impacted their ranking and where improvement is necessary.  We commend NRCS for taking these important steps to increase the transparency and accessibility of the CMT.

Farmers’ Guide to the CSP

As producers consider signing up for the program, they may want to review NSAC’s recently updated Farmers’ Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program.  The guide is intended to help family farmers, ranchers, and foresters better understand the CSP enrollment process.  In addition, it provides clear information on conservation activities eligible for CSP payments to improve conservation performance and environmental benefits.

The revised Guide includes step-by-step enrollment guidance, key definitions, and helpful hints.  It also includes a new five-page section with data analysis of the program’s first two sign-up periods in 2009 and 2010.  This data section includes analysis of program participation by geographic region, land use type, commodity type, and the top conservation practices and enhancements chosen by farmers and ranchers who have enrolled in the program.

Under the MRBI, NRCS provides financial assistance to farmers in areas covered by MRBI projects who undertake conservation practices specified by a project’s sponsors.  Most of the NRCS funding is provided through NRCS conservation programs.

For the new MRBI projects, NRCS is providing financial assistance to farmers of up to $11.74 million in FY2012 funding under the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) and $25 million in funding from the Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program (WREP).  The CCPI, in turn, draws its funding from the three major working lands conservation programs – Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program.

Additional information on the MRBI is available on the NRCS webpage for the Initiative.

At a December 2011 briefing, NRCS Chief Dave White announced that $5 million in Conservation Innovation Grants would also be available for this MRBI funding round.  The notice of funding for the new MRBI projects also provides that the NRCS Chief may provide additional funding using his discretion under other NRCS conservation programs and mechanisms.

NRCS has designated 54 watershed focus areas in 13 states as eligible for MRBI project funding.  The 13 states include the ten states along the Mississippi River’s main stem plus Indiana, Ohio and South Dakota.

The CCPI funding may be used in all designated watersheds for projects that establish practices to reduce nutrient pollution, protect wildlife habitat, and restore wetlands restoration.  In the watersheds in the Lower Mississippi basin CCPI funds may be used to address water quantity issues in addition to water quality issues.

Under WREP, states, local units of government and nongovernmental organizations enter into agreements for WREP projects.   As part of  the WREP agreement, the project sponsor can agree to help landowners submit applications for NRCS assistance and provide additional technical or financial assistance.

At the December briefing on the MRBI, Chief White emphasized that monitoring of water quality changes is a critical issue for evaluation of MRBI projects.  NRCS provides financial assistance to landowners for their water quality and monitoring activities under NRCS Conservation Practice Standard 799.  NRCS is currently working to improve the implementation of that standard.

Chief White announced that the length of time funding is available to landowners under the Standard will be increased beyond three years.  NRCS is also working with the U.S. Geological Survey, EPA and the Agricultural Research Service to improve the coordination of their water quality monitoring efforts with more consistent protocols and complementary activities.

You can download the FY 2012 CIG Announcement of Program Funding from USDA’s CIG webpage.  Those who are interested in proposing a CIG project can apply electronically via http://www.grants.gov.

According to the press release, FY 2012 CIG projects will “focus on nutrient management, energy conservation, soil health, wildlife and CIG projects assessment.”

NRCS will prioritize project that demonstrate:

• Optimal combinations of nutrient source, application rate, placement and timing that improve nutrient recovery by crops.
• Procedures for refining the usefulness of the phosphorous index in reducing phosphorous losses.
• Suites of conservation practices that protect water quality.
• Renewable energy systems that reduce the use of fossil fuels and increase energy efficiency on farms.
• The impacts of cover crops, crop rotations, tillage and other conservation practices on soil health.
• Conservation practices that increase the water-holding capacity of soils.
• Decision tools that help producers assess their operations and conservation needs in order to improve wildlife habitat.
• The technology transfer potential of completed CIG projects.

While individuals can apply for a CIG, applicants are typically non-governmental organizations, State or local governments, or federally recognized Indian Tribes.  Projects “must encompass the development and assessment, evaluation and implementation of either of the following: conservation adoption approaches or incentive systems, including market-based systems; or promising conservation technologies, practices, systems, procedures or activities.”

Program Background

The CIG program is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as a subprogram within the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

According to USDA, CIG “is a voluntary program intended to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies while leveraging Federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection, in conjunction with agricultural production.”  These projects help to transfer technology to address critical resource concerns.  Grantees must match 50 percent of the funds provided by the CIG award.

For examples of past projects, including NSAC’s own CIG project, and more information about the program, you can read our earlier blog post on last year’s round of CIG awards.

2012 Conservation Stewardship Program Sign-Up Extended

On Friday, December 9, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced that the fiscal year (FY) 2012 ranking period cutoff for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is January 13, 2012.  Given the busy holiday season time frame, on January 10 NRCS extended the ranking period cutoff date until January 27, 2012.

Interested farmers and ranchers now have until Friday, January 27, 2012, to complete the initial application form to compete for a spot in the 2012 enrollment class for the program.

To sign up, producers should visit their NRCS local service center.

* Continuous Sign-Up, But if You Miss the Cut-Off You Wait a Full Year – While CSP is a continuous sign-up program and producers can apply to enroll at any time of the year, NRCS applies a cut-off date for applications to be considered during a particular fiscal year.  Once the cut-off date is past, producers may continue to apply for the program, but they will not be considered for entry until the spring of the following year, in this case spring of 2013, so if you want to enroll in 2012 you must get an application filed by January 27.

Process and Timeline

The application form, available at the local NRCS office, is a fairly short and simple one.  Producers will also need to fill out the NRCS-CPA-1200 form.  It is the same short generic two page form that is used for all the NRCS conservation programs offering financial assistance to farmers and ranchers.

Prior to submitting the CSP application (or an application for any other USDA conservation assistance program) you must have a farm record number established with the Farm Service Agency.  If you do not currently have one, go to FSA first to establish your farm record.

All producers who have submitted their completed short conservation program application form by January 27 will then have until about early or mid March 2012 to sit down with their local NRCS staff person and fill out the CSP Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT) which will be used to determine program eligibility, environmental benefits ranking, and CSP payment amounts.  The CMT session will generally last an hour or more.

NRCS currently expects to complete the ranking process by early to mid March.  Farmers and ranchers with the highest environmental benefits scores on the CMT will be chosen for enrollment.  NRCS will then schedule on-farm verification visits and develop a CSP plan and contract for each enrollee.  The agency currently expects that process to last through mid to late April.  The first annual payments for five-year contracts awarded in this round will be made on or after October 1, 2012 and then every October 1 thereafter.

Background in Brief

The CSP is a working lands conservation program administered by NRCS and available on a nationwide basis.  CSP offers technical and financial assistance to farmers for adopting and maintaining high standards of resource conservation and environmental stewardship.  Assistance is geared to both the active management of existing conservation systems and for implementing new conservation activities on land in agricultural production.

In the first three enrollment years for CSP (2009, 2010, and 2011), enrolled 30,197 farmers and ranchers operating nearly 38 million acres of farm and ranch land that is now under five-year, renewable CSP conservation contracts.  For those three enrollment classes, annual CSP payments are currently over $510 million a year.

The 2012 sign-up will be somewhat smaller than the first three sign-ups, each of which enrolled very close to the 12.8 million acre per year level provided by the 2008 Farm Bill.  The 2012 iteration of CSP will have an enrollment cap between 9 and 10 million acres due to a budget cut to the program made by the FY 2012 Agricultural Appropriations Act.

Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie land, improved pastureland, rangeland, non-industrial private forest lands and agricultural land under tribal jurisdiction.  Cropped woodlands, marshes, land being used for livestock production and other private lands on which resource concerns can be addressed are also eligible.  Applicants must demonstrate they have effective control over these lands to be eligible, either through ownership or reasonably secure leases.

NRCS has developed a self screening checklist to help farmers decide if the program is right for them.  The checklist covers basic applicant and land eligibility issues as well as the stewardship threshold that CSP farmers must meet.  It’s a useful first step in deciding whether to apply.

CSP eligibility, ranking and payment levels are pegged to how well a farmer is addressing priority resource concerns on their farm.  Priority resource concerns are determined at the state level and can include, for example, soil quality, water quality, wildlife habitat, plant diversity and soil erosion.  Each state decides whether to assign priority resource concerns for the entire state or at the watershed level.  Each state or watershed has at least three priority resource concerns assigned to it.

You can find out the priority resource concerns in your state by visiting your state’s NRCS website and searching for “priority resource concerns.”   Be forewarned that not all states make this information easy to find.  If you do not find it easily on the website, call your local NRCS office for the information.

For each priority resource concern, NRCS has determined a “stewardship threshold” level for superior conservation.  To be eligible for the program, an applicant must already be addressing at least one priority resource concern to at least the stewardship threshold level and be willing to reach or exceed the stewardship threshold for at least one additional resource concern during the contract period.  In addition, applicants must agree to adopt additional conservation activities from amongst a pre-approved list during the first years of the contract.

Farmers and ranchers who do not meet the eligibility threshold may alternatively seek assistance for conservation improvements through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and then apply for CSP in a future year, using EQIP funding to help them reach the higher eligibility standard for CSP.

The national average payment to participants is $18 per acre; however, the actual payment received varies widely according to the type of land enrolled, the existing level of conservation, and the number and type of new enhancements and practices to be adopted.  Cropland generally receives the highest payment rate, with range and forest land at the lower end, and pasture in the middle.  Pastured cropland receives payment rates in between cropland and pasture rates.

A person or business entity may not receive more than $40,000 per year in CSP payments.  Joint multi-family operations are limited to not more than $80,000 per year.  For small acreage farms, USDA will make $1,000 the minimum contract payment if the operator is a beginning farmer or rancher, a socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher or a limited resource farmer or rancher.  Five percent of total CSP acres each are reserved for separate competitions among beginning farmers only and among socially disadvantaged (minority) farmers only.

Changes to CSP Conservation Enhancements and Practices

The list of conservation enhancements and conservation practices available for the 2012 sign-up includes 37 regular conservation practices, four more practices than were available in 2011.  In the list provided by NRCS, to find the conservation practices available, go to pages 16 through 19.

The 2012 sign-up also includes a total of 68 individual conservation enhancements, down from 94 in 2011.  Sixty of these enhancements were offered in the same form in 2011; however, eight enhancements were consolidated into four, and another four are entirely new.  NRCS discontinued 34 of the enhancements that it offered in 2011.  In the list provided by NRCS, the enhancements can be found on pages 1 through 11.

Beyond individual enhancements, the 2012 list of activities includes 10 enhancement bundles as opposed to the 20 bundles offered in 2011.  Bundles are groupings of conservation enhancements they agency feels may work well together on particular types of farms.  You can think of the two options – choosing from among the practices and enhancements, or choosing a bundle – as similar to ordering from the a la carte menu or choosing the “blue plate” special.  To view the bundles in the list provided by NRCS, go to pages 13 through 15.

The supplemental and special project activities available in 2011 were retained for 2012.  A substantial supplemental payment is available for adopting or improving a resource-conserving crop rotation, in recognition of the very important multiple resource benefits that longer more diverse rotations provide.  The special project activities are on-farm research and demonstrations of innovative conservation activities and on-farm pilot testing of proven conservation activities that do not yet have wide adoption rates.  The supplement and special project activities are listed on page 12 of the NRCS list.

Of particular note for livestock producers, NRCS has rearranged and rescored a number of grazing activities.  The 2012 sign up will combine what had been “ultra high-density grazing” and “intensive management of rotational grazing” into a new “intensive rotational grazing” enhancement (PLT16) that will yield a high environmental benefit score (45 points).  “Prescribed grazing” (CPS 528) will get 36 points while “grazing area monitoring to improve grazing management” (PLT02) will get 31 points.

Among the discontinued enhancements include “improve plant diversity and structure on non- cropped areas for wildlife food and habitat” (ANM08), “wildlife corridors” (ANM19), and “managing livestock access to water bodies” (WQL12).  NRCS added a wildlife component to “increased on-farm food production with edible woody buffer landscapes” enhancement (PLT15) in an effort to accomplish some of what ANM08 has accomplished, and some of the available conservation practices can provide some assistance with wildlife corridors.

The four newly-offered conservation practices for this year are “alley cropping,” “fencing,” “forest slash treatment,” and “watering facility.”

Of particular interest to organic farmers and others utilizing sustainable agriculture systems, CSP in 2012 will continue to offer:

• resource-conserving crop rotations
• providing nitrogen through legumes, manure, and compost
• intensive rotational grazing
• continuous no-till for organic systems
• intercropping
• continuous cover cropping
• pollinator and beneficial insect habitat
• biological suppression of weeds and invasives
• high level IPM
• IPM for organic systems
• non-chemical pest management for livestock
• transition to organic grazing systems
• transition to organic cropping systems
• on-farm composting
• multi-species perennials for biomass

CSP Enhancement and Practice Environmental Benefit Ranking Points

Each year, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition makes available a list of all the available options for enhancements, practices and bundles in the order of their environmental benefit scores.  The points scored by choosing different options help to determine whether an application will rank high enough to be selected for enrollment.

NRCS has not yet finished the scoring process for the 2012 sign-up and hence we cannot yet make the 2012 version of our chart available at this time.  We will, however, post that chart on our website (www.sustainableagriculture.net) just as soon as NRCS makes the numbers available.

Transparency Improvements

As mentioned above, the CSP Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT) is filled out by each applicant and is used to determine program eligibility, environmental benefits ranking, and CSP payment amounts.  The CMT covers both active management of existing conservation acticities on a farm as well as new enhancement and practice adoption.

Importantly, NRCS also made a number of changes for 2012 to the way the Conservation Measurement Tool works. The CMT will now display performance points in real time to allow producers to see the effects of their responses to questions and choices in the CMT on their score.  Producers will be able to perform “what-if” analysis as they fill out the CMT.  The tool will now also break down the applicants’ total ranking score to allow the participant to understand how past performance has impacted their ranking and where improvement is necessary.  We commend NRCS for taking these important steps to increase the transparency and accessibility of the CMT.

Farmers’ Guide to the CSP

As producers consider signing up for the program, they may want to review NSAC’s recently updated Farmers’ Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program.  The guide is intended to help family farmers, ranchers, and foresters better understand the CSP enrollment process.  In addition, it provides clear information on conservation activities eligible for CSP payments to improve conservation performance and environmental benefits.

The revised Guide includes step-by-step enrollment guidance, key definitions, and helpful hints.  It also includes a new five-page section with data analysis of the program’s first two sign-up periods in 2009 and 2010.  This data section includes analysis of program participation by geographic region, land use type, commodity type, and the top conservation practices and enhancements chosen by farmers and ranchers who have enrolled in the program.

NIFSI broadly addresses food safety issues encountered throughout the entire food procurement process- from on-farm production to consumption.  The initiative’s projects take an integrated approach to food safety by combining university research with classroom education and outreach to a diverse set of groups, including consumers, producers, federal agencies, and food service workers.

Several of the funded projects include:

• Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia- $100,000.  This project aims to improve processing operation methods in small and very small meat plants to enhance meat product safety.

• University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia- $535,725.  This project will update and maintain the current National Center for Home Food Processing and Preservation website and conduct research on the safe and appropriate use of the home-style atmospheric steam canners for small batch canning.

• University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts- $424,878.  Through this partnership, university extension faculty and staff, county educators, local farm-to-preschool programs, early child care educators and local agricultural organizations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire will collaborate to identify and improve fresh produce safety knowledge and practices of staff, educators, and parent volunteers.

• Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee- $100,000.  This project will determine the occurrence of antibiotic resistant Clostridium difficile in poultry and pork products and the farm environment and develop and distribute educational materials on improving management practices to limited resource poultry and pig producers.

Unfortunately the FY 2012 agriculture appropriations bill that was signed into law by President Obama on November 18th zeroed out the budget for NIFSI for this fiscal year.  In the current budget environment, this may well be the last round of grants that NIFA will administer for the program which in recent years has been funded at $10-15 million a year.  Interestingly, while this funding was eliminated for 2012, funding for the Food and Drug Administration to enforce the new Food Safety Modernization Act, which is intended to be science-based, was increased by approximately $50 million.

To see a full listing of grant recipients, click here.