One of the key questions lingering over the 2023 farm bill reauthorization is whether Congress will approve a farm bill that builds climate resilience for the countless farmers whose livelihoods depend on it. While there is not one policy solution that can do this alone, the facts show that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is perhaps the single most ready-made tool for farmers to voluntarily tackle climate change.
CSP is an incredibly popular program among farmers. In 2020, more than 20,000 farmers were turned away from the program due to a lack of funding. And in 2022, the number of farmers turned away from CSP due to a lack of funding had grown to over 24,000. In these two years, more than 75% of the farmers that applied to one of USDA’s most effective climate programs were turned away.
In August 2022, Congress passed the historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a landmark piece of legislation that provided nearly $20 billion dollars to the United States Department of Agriculture for various programs capable of reducing greenhouse gasses across our food and farm system, including CSP. Through the IRA, CSP received a total of $3.25 billion, a crucial investment that is already helping to meet farmer demand and making progress toward climate goals through this high impact program.
But to understand just how impactful IRA spending in CSP is likely to be, this blog post examines both how CSP’s unique programmatic design creates greater conservation benefits than other approaches and how CSP spending in recent years shows a clear track record of delivering support to producers ready to implement climate friendly practices on their farms.
CSP’s Approach to Conservation
Farmers and ranchers are important managers of our shared air, water, and soil resources, and CSP recognizes and rewards this critical role. CSP is an innovative program for working farms, built on the belief that we must enhance natural resources and environmental protection as we simultaneously produce profitable food, fiber, and energy. By providing comprehensive conservation assistance to whole farms, CSP offers farmers the opportunity to earn payments for actively managing, maintaining, and expanding conservation activities like cover crops, rotational grazing, ecologically-based pest management, buffer strips, and the transition to organic farming – even while they work their lands for production.
CSP pays producers to improve, maintain, and actively manage conservation activities already in place at the time of application and to adopt new conservation activities during the life of the five-year contract. Payment amounts are determined by multiple factors, including income forgone, expected conservation benefits, and the costs incurred, which range from planning, design, materials, installation, labor, management, maintenance, and training.
When paying producers for their conservation activities, NRCS groups specific activities into three categories: conservation practices, enhancements, and bundles:
Conservation Practices are the basic conservation activities that have long been supported by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and other cost-share programs. Basic conservation practices might prove particularly helpful in meeting the stewardship threshold for additional priority resource concerns. As an example, Cover Crop is a basic Conservation Practice that NRCS compensates producers for in multiple conservation programs.
Enhancements are more substantial interventions and are largely unique to CSP. Conservation enhancements are designed to help farmers exceed the sustainable performance level for a given resource concern. In other words, they are intended to help solve natural resource problems and improve overall conservation performance and build on the good work accomplished by adopting an underlying conservation practice. As an example, NRCS considers the use of multi-species cover crops to improve soil health and increase soil organic matter an enhancement on the basic Cover Crop practice. Producers that implement this enhancement receive additional compensation in CSP.
Bundles are the most integrated elements of CSP supported interventions. Bundles are groupings of conservation enhancements that the agency feels may work well together to provide increased benefits when they are implemented as a group on particular types of farms. Participants who include bundles as part of their CSP contract receive a higher level of financial assistance to encourage the holistic approach to generate additional conservation benefits. As an example, NRCS offers a Cropland Soil Health Management System Bundle. This bundle lets producers choose a cover crop enhancement, a nutrient management enhancement, and pairs them with two no-till practice enhancements, thereby compensating producers that are willing to utilize multiple high value conservation activities together on the same acreage. This holistic approach to conservation generates far greater environmental benefit than implementing any basic conservation practice on its own.
Climate Friendly Spending In CSP
In addition to CSP’s approach of layering and enhancing conservation activities, rather than paying producers to adopt single practices, CSP has a track record of spending a high percentage of program funds on climate friendly practices.
NRCS, as the agency responsible for administering CSP, is also responsible for ensuring the will of Congress is carried out with respect to the IRA, which states that funds provided to CSP can only be spent on activities that mitigate or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. NRCS has generated its list of CSAF practices in order to funnel IRA funding to a subset of established conservation activities it believes accomplish this goal. While NSAC strongly disagrees with a handful of the activities selected for the list, on the whole the NRCS CSAF practices represent a solid set of classic conservation activities that have clear co-benefits for the climate and other pressing resource concerns.
While the CSAF practice list is a recent development at NRCS, nearly all of the activities on the list have existed in some shape or form at NRCS for years. This allows for old contracting data to be compared to activities on the current CSAF practice list. The tables below summarize contract data for fiscal year (FY) 21 and FY22, grouping financial assistance (cost-share provided to producers) by conservation activity codes. Basic practice codes use all numbers (ex. 340), enhancement codes start with an E (ex. E340C), and bundles start with a B (ex. B000CPL24). Table 1 provides a snapshot of how many CSAF conservation activities were funded through CSP contracts in FY21.
Table 1. Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Practice, CSP, FY2021
| CSAF Category | Practice NameEnhancement Name | Code | Financial Assistance | Total | Percentage of Total CSP Payments |
| Nitrogen Management | Nutrient Management | 590 | $3,369,356 | $66,725,833 | 13.23% |
| Improving nutrient uptake efficiency and reducing risk of nutrient losses | E590A | $38,293,260 | |||
| Reduce risks of nutrient loss to surface water by utilizing precision agriculture technologies | E590B | $22,811,645 | |||
| Improving nutrient uptake efficiency and reducing risk of nutrient losses on pasture | E590C | $2,251,572 | |||
| Soil Health | Conservation Cover | 327 | $384,748 | $45,635,955 | 9.05% |
| Conservation cover for pollinators and beneficial insects | E327A | $326,010 | |||
| Establish Monarch butterfly habitat | E327B | $4,824,557 | |||
| Conservation Crop Rotation | 328 | $835,069 | |||
| Resource conserving crop rotation | E328A | $2,904,593 | |||
| Improved resource conserving crop rotation | E328B | $54,087 | |||
| Soil health crop rotation | E328E | $852,207 | |||
| Modifications to improve soil health and increase soil organic matter | E328F | $1,495,421 | |||
| Crop rotation on recently converted CRP grass/legume cover for soil organic matter improvement | E328G | $2,259 | |||
| Residue and Tillage Management, No Till | 329 | $1,599,772 | |||
| No till to reduce soil erosion | E329A | $1,154,691 | |||
| No till to reduce tillage induced particulate matter | E329B | $10,047 | |||
| No till to increase plant-available moisture | E329C | $157,687 | |||
| No till system to increase soil health and soil organic matter content | E329D | $1,363,642 | |||
| No till to reduce energy | E329E | $129,959 | |||
| Cover Crop | 340 | $6,037,450 | |||
| Cover crop to reduce soil erosion | E340A | $2,914,769 | |||
| Intensive cover cropping to increase soil health and soil organic matter content | E340B | $2,725,537 | |||
| Use of multi-species cover crops to improve soil health and increase soil organic matter | E340C | $2,594,300 | |||
| Intensive orchard/vineyard floor cover cropping to increase soil health | E340D | $48,887 | |||
| Cover crop to minimize soil compaction | E340F | $1,998,001 | |||
| Cover crop to reduce water quality degradation by utilizing excess soil nutrients | E340G | $2,422,469 | |||
| Cover crop to suppress excessive weed pressures and break pest cycles | E340H | $1,643,864 | |||
| Using cover crops for biological strip till | E340I | $4,040 | |||
| Residue and Tillage Management, Reduced Till | 345 | $1,585,482 | |||
| Reduced tillage to reduce soil erosion | E345A | $3,417,079 | |||
| Reduced tillage to reduce tillage induced particulate matter | E345B | $183,976 | |||
| Reduced tillage to increase plant-available moisture | E345C | $374,085 | |||
| Reduced tillage to increase soil health and soil organic matter content | E345D | $2,068,155 | |||
| Reduced tillage to reduce energy use | E345E | $173,657 | |||
| Field Border | 386 | $31,062 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to reduce soil erosion along the edge(s) of a field | E386A | $275,195 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to increase carbon storage along the edge(s) of the field | E386B | $117,180 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to decrease particulate emissions along the edge(s) of the field | E386C | $4,422 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to increase food for pollinators along the edge(s) of a field | E386D | $77,693 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to increase wildlife food and habitat along the edge(s) of a field | E386E | $89,456 | |||
| Filter Strip | 393 | $7,424 | |||
| Extend existing filter strip to reduce water quality impacts | E393A | $82,097 | |||
| Grassed Waterway | 412 | $23,453 | |||
| Enhance a grassed waterway | E412A | $208,735 | |||
| Mulching | 484 | $46,415 | |||
| Mulching to improve soil health | E484A | $340 | |||
| Reduce particulate matter emissions by using orchard or vineyard generated woody materials as mulch | E484B | $103,094 | |||
| Mulching with natural materials in specialty crops for weed control | E484C | $7,190 | |||
| Buffer Bundle#1 | B000BFF1 | $27,378 | |||
| Crop Bundle #24 – Cropland Soil Health Management System | B000CPL24 | $248,321 | |||
| Agroforestry, Forestry and Upland Wildlife Habitat | Alley Cropping | 311 | $691 | $35,328,641 | 7.00% |
| Critical Area Planting | 342 | $11,883 | |||
| Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment | 380 | $6,022 | |||
| Silvopasture | 381 | $1,287 | |||
| Silvopasture to improve wildlife habitat | E381A | $9,202 | |||
| Riparian Herbaceous Cover | 390 | $4,510 | |||
| Increase riparian herbaceous cover width for sediment and nutrient reduction | E390A | $11,730 | |||
| Increase riparian herbaceous cover width to enhance wildlife habitat | E390B | $23,680 | |||
| Riparian Forest Buffer | 391 | $35,942 | |||
| Increase riparian forest buffer width for sediment and nutrient reduction | E391A | $151,533 | |||
| Increase stream shading for stream temperature reduction | E391B | $2,493,923 | |||
| Increase riparian forest buffer width to enhance wildlife habitat | E391C | $2,706,388 | |||
| Hedgerow Planting | 422 | $727 | |||
| Tree/Shrub Establishment | 612 | $379,101 | |||
| Planting for high carbon sequestration rate | E612B | $8,120,463 | |||
| Establishing tree/shrub species to restore native plant communities | E612C | $1,123,367 | |||
| Tree/shrub planting for wildlife food | E612G | $2,169,802 | |||
| Upland Wildlife Habitat Management | 645 | $216,442 | |||
| Manage existing shrub thickets to provide adequate shelter for wildlife | E645B | $133,529 | |||
| Edge feathering for wildlife cover | E645C | $145,252 | |||
| Forest Stand Improvement | 666 | $631,831 | |||
| Maintaining and improving forest soil quality | E666A | $1,900,865 | |||
| Forest management to enhance understory vegetation | E666D | $2,822,732 | |||
| Reduce height of the forest understory to limit wildfire risk | E666E | $804,836 | |||
| Reduce forest stand density to create open stand structure | E666F | $2,315,270 | |||
| Increase on-site carbon storage | E666H | $542,706 | |||
| Crop tree management for mast production | E666I | $2,053,711 | |||
| Facilitating oak forest regeneration | E666J | $467,032 | |||
| Creating structural diversity with patch openings | E666K | $621,042 | |||
| Forest Stand Improvement to rehabilitate degraded hardwood stands | E666L | $1,696,454 | |||
| Summer roosting habitat for native forest-dwelling bat species | E666P | $2,849,114 | |||
| Forest songbird habitat maintenance | E666R | $245,550 | |||
| Facilitating longleaf pine establishment | E666S | $28,299 | |||
| Establish pollinator habitat | E420A | $181,882 | |||
| Establish monarch butterfly habitat | E420B | $421,843 | |||
| Grazing and Pasture | Pasture and Hay Planting | 512 | $471,043 | $5,163,050 | 1.02% |
| Prescribed Grazing | 528 | $4,670,397 | |||
| Range Planting | 550 | $21,610 | |||
| Rice | Irrigation Water Management | 449 | $242,348 | $242,348 | 0.05% |
| Energy | Pumping Plant | 533 | $10,194 | $10,194 | 0.002% |
| TOTAL | $153,106,021 | 30.35% |
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that over $153 million was delivered to farmers through CSP to implement CSAF conservation activities in FY21. That is more than 30% of the total program funding available. This is a large amount of money working to address climate change on farms, and all the evidence suggests that farmers are prepared to do more if funds are made available. During this same year, less than 20% of farmers applying to CSP were awarded contracts.
The IRA made $250 million available in FY23 for this same subset of practices on top of $1 billion in Farm Bill funding for CSP. That’s a 25% increase in total funding available, a modest increase for program with such a clear track record of oversubscription. Additionally, with a strong pattern at the agency of spending 30% of available program dollars on CSAF practices, obligating all IRA money for contracts containing these practices should not be a challenge. In fact, if only the $250 million of IRA funding was used to support CSAF practices in FY23, then we would see a decrease in proportion of total program dollars obligated to CSAF practices, from 30% to 20%. It is far more likely that with a larger total dollar amount available to address the backlog of program applications, we will see all IRA funding obligated, and an additional portion of Farm Bill baseline funding used to support more CSAF practices.
Table 2 illustrates this likelihood by showing increasing farmer interest in CSAF practices in FY22, with both total dollars spent on CSAF practices and total proportion of spending on CSAF practices rising.
Table 2. Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Practices, CSP FY2022
| CSAF Category | Practice Name | Code | Financial Assistance | Total | Percentage of Total CSP Payments |
| Nitrogen Management | Nutrient Management | 590 | $2,605,647 | $97,382,301 | 15.84% |
| Improving nutrient uptake efficiency and reducing risk of nutrient losses | E590A | $71,916,154 | |||
| Reduce risks of nutrient loss to surface water by utilizing precision agriculture technologies | E590B | $20,944,034 | |||
| Improving nutrient uptake efficiency and reducing risk of nutrient losses on pasture | E590C | $1,816,436 | |||
| Reduce nutrient loss by increasing setback awareness via precision technology for water quality | E590D | $100,030 | |||
| Agroforestry, Forestry and Upland Wildlife Habitat | Alley Cropping | 311 | $68 | $58,201,207 | 9.47% |
| Critical Area Planting | 342 | $30,161 | |||
| Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment and Renovation | 380 | $9,850 | |||
| Silvopasture | 381 | $1,773 | |||
| Silvopasture to improve wildlife habitat | E381A | $22,633 | |||
| Riparian Herbaceous Cover | 390 | $2,424 | |||
| Increase riparian herbaceous cover width for sediment and nutrient reduction | E390A | $20,286 | |||
| Increase riparian herbaceous cover width to enhance wildlife habitat | E390B | $20,711 | |||
| Riparian Forest Buffer | 391 | $30,960 | |||
| Increase riparian forest buffer width for sediment and nutrient reduction | E391A | $91,854 | |||
| Increase stream shading for stream temperature reduction | E391B | $2,346,857 | |||
| Increase riparian forest buffer width to enhance wildlife habitat | E391C | $1,980,657 | |||
| Wildlife Habitat Planting | 420 | $88,062 | |||
| Establish pollinator habitat | E420A | $339,254 | |||
| Establish monarch butterfly habitat | E420B | $445,948 | |||
| Hedgerow Planting | 422 | $1,078 | |||
| Tree/Shrub Establishment | 612 | $548,635 | |||
| Planting for high carbon sequestration rate | E612B | $24,568,829 | |||
| Establishing tree/shrub species to restore native plant communities | E612C | $2,619,562 | |||
| Tree/shrub planting for wildlife food | E612G | $2,837,490 | |||
| Upland Wildlife Habitat Management | 645 | $151,756 | |||
| Manage existing shrub thickets to provide adequate shelter for wildlife | E645B | $385,535 | |||
| Edge feathering for wildlife cover | E645C | $259,007 | |||
| Forest Stand Improvement | 666 | $775,622 | |||
| Maintaining and improving forest soil quality | E666A | $2,087,013 | |||
| Forest management to enhance understory vegetation | E666D | $3,844,845 | |||
| Reduce height of the forest understory to limit wildfire risk | E666E | $1,350,414 | |||
| Reduce forest stand density to create open stand structure | E666F | $3,932,360 | |||
| Increase on-site carbon storage | E666H | $374,671 | |||
| Crop tree management for mast production | E666I | $1,746,532 | |||
| Facilitating oak forest regeneration | E666J | $862,605 | |||
| Creating structural diversity with patch openings | E666K | $704,021 | |||
| Forest Stand Improvement to rehabilitate degraded hardwood stands | E666L | $2,349,227 | |||
| Summer roosting habitat for native forest-dwelling bat species | E666P | $3,092,961 | |||
| Forest songbird habitat maintenance | E666R | $228,683 | |||
| Facilitating longleaf pine establishment | E666S | $48,863 | |||
| Soil Health | Conservation Cover | 327 | $137,563 | $43,629,685 | 7.10% |
| Conservation cover for pollinators and beneficial insects | E327A | $614,349 | |||
| Establish Monarch butterfly habitat | E327B | $1,156,690 | |||
| Conservation Crop Rotation | 328 | $907,995 | |||
| Resource conserving crop rotation | E328A | $2,534,902 | |||
| Improved resource conserving crop rotation | E328B | $226,865 | |||
| Soil health crop rotation | E328E | $937,088 | |||
| Modifications to improve soil health and increase soil organic matter | E328F | $376,993 | |||
| Crop rotation on recently converted CRP grass/legume cover for soil organic matter improvement | E328G | $2,368 | |||
| Intercropping to Improve Soil Health | E328N | $16,412 | |||
| Perennial Grain Conservation Crop Rotation | E328O | $59,936 | |||
| Residue and Tillage Management, No Till | 329 | $1,277,923 | |||
| No till to reduce soil erosion | E329A | $1,880,349 | |||
| No till to reduce tillage induced particulate matter | E329B | $94,341 | |||
| No till to increase plant-available moisture | E329C | $299,596 | |||
| No till system to increase soil health and soil organic matter content | E329D | $1,186,798 | |||
| No till to reduce energy | E329E | $102,644 | |||
| Cover Crop | 340 | $5,828,222 | |||
| Cover crop to reduce soil erosion | E340A | $3,986,434 | |||
| Intensive cover cropping to increase soil health and soil organic matter content | E340B | $3,304,135 | |||
| Use of multi-species cover crops to improve soil health and increase soil organic matter | E340C | $2,247,527 | |||
| Intensive orchard/vineyard floor cover cropping to increase soil health | E340D | $48,612 | |||
| Cover crop to minimize soil compaction | E340F | $1,926,454 | |||
| Cover crop to reduce water quality degradation by utilizing excess soil nutrients | E340G | $1,223,058 | |||
| Cover crop to suppress excessive weed pressures and break pest cycles | E340H | $3,046,357 | |||
| Residue and Tillage Management, Reduced Till | 345 | $1,509,354 | |||
| Reduced tillage to reduce soil erosion | E345A | $4,373,834 | |||
| Reduced tillage to reduce tillage induced particulate matter | E345B | $155,419 | |||
| Reduced tillage to increase plant-available moisture | E345C | $277,979 | |||
| Reduced tillage to increase soil health and soil organic matter content | E345D | $2,063,039 | |||
| Reduced tillage to reduce energy use | E345E | $104,387 | |||
| Field Border | 386 | $17,272 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to reduce soil erosion along the edge(s) of a field | E386A | $306,622 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to increase carbon storage along the edge(s) of the field | E386B | $285,119 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to decrease particulate emissions along the edge(s) of the field | E386C | $21,434 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to increase food for pollinators along the edge(s) of a field | E386D | $85,401 | |||
| Enhanced field borders to increase wildlife food and habitat along the edge(s) of a field | E386E | $77,940 | |||
| Filter Strip | 393 | $8,594 | |||
| Extend existing filter strip to reduce water quality impacts | E393A | $153,493 | |||
| Grassed Waterway | 412 | $14,297 | |||
| Enhance a grassed waterway | E412A | $354,786 | |||
| Mulching | 484 | $88,715 | |||
| Mulching to improve soil health | E484A | $21,575 | |||
| Reduce particulate matter emissions by using orchard or vineyard generated woody materials as mulch | E484B | $240,260 | |||
| Mulching with natural materials in specialty crops for weed control | E484C | $40,997 | |||
| Buffer Bundle#1 | B000BF | $5,557 | |||
| Grazing and Pasture | Pasture and Hay Planting | 512 | $498,771 | $34,146,322 | 5.55% |
| Cropland conversion to grass-based agriculture to reduce soil erosion | E512A | $21,566 | |||
| Forage and biomass planting to reduce soil erosion or increase organic matter to build soil health | E512B | $82,948 | |||
| Cropland conversion to grass for soil organic matter improvement | E512C | $17,681 | |||
| Forage plantings that help increase organic matter in depleted soils | E512D | $73,014 | |||
| Forage and biomass planting that produces feedstock for biofuels or energy production. | E512E | $68,378 | |||
| Establish pollinator and/or beneficial insect and/or monarch habitat | E512I | $3,955 | |||
| Establish wildlife corridors to provide habitat continuity or access to water | E512J | $94 | |||
| Diversifying Forage Base with Interseeding Forbs and Legumes to Increase Pasture Quality | E512L | $72,349 | |||
| Forage Plantings that Improve Wildlife Habitat Cover and Shelter or Structure and Composition | E512M | $62,510 | |||
| Prescribed Grazing | 528 | $5,299,300 | |||
| Maintaining quantity and quality of forage for animal health and productivity | E528A | $4,877,441 | |||
| Grazing management for improving quantity and quality of food or cover and shelter for wildlife | E528D | $224,106 | |||
| Improved grazing management for enhanced plant structure and composition for wildlife | E528E | $1,434,976 | |||
| Stockpiling cool season forage to improve structure and composition or plant productivity and health | E528F | $435,847 | |||
| Improved grazing management on pasture for plant productivity and health with monitoring activities | E528G | $284,213 | |||
| Prescribed grazing to improve/maintain riparian and watershed function-elevated water temperature | E528H | $12,937 | |||
| Grazing management that protects sensitive areas -surface or ground water from nutrients | E528I | $39,728 | |||
| Prescribed grazing on pastureland that improves riparian and watershed function | E528J | $297,769 | |||
| Prescribed grazing that improves or maintains riparian and watershed function-erosion | E528L | $1,723,162 | |||
| Grazing management that protects sensitive areas from gully erosion | E528M | $40,577 | |||
| Clipping mature forages to set back vegetative growth for improved forage quality | E528O | $9,744,386 | |||
| Implementing Bale or Swath Grazing to increase organic matter and reduce nutrients in surface water | E528P | $3,625,316 | |||
| Management Intensive Rotational Grazing | E528R | $4,945,828 | |||
| Soil Health Improvements on Pasture | E528S | $175,823 | |||
| Range Planting | 550 | $15,337 | |||
| Range planting for increasing/maintaining organic matter | E550A | $60,569 | |||
| Range planting for improving forage, browse, or cover for wildlife | E550B | $7,741 | |||
| Rice | Irrigation Water Management | 449 | $586,778 | $586,778 | 0.10% |
| Energy | Energy Efficient Agricultural Operation | 374 | $367 | $180,517 | 0.03% |
| Alternated Wetting and Drying (AWD) of rice fields | E449B | $180,150 | |||
| TOTAL | $234,126,810 | 38.09% |
The trend of increased spending on CSAF in CSP is clear, with total funds delivered to farmers rising to over $234 million in FY23, accounting for 38% of program spending. This shows a significant history of increased funding in CSP translating directly to more CSAF practices on the landscape. CSP had $750 million dollars in FY21 for new contracts and $800 million in FY22, and demonstrates the program’s ability to easily obligate the total amount of IRA funding allocated in FY23.
Conclusion
CSP has been successfully funding hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of CSAF practices for years. Over the life of the 2018 Farm Bill, increased money available in the program has resulted in an immediate increase in the number of CSAF practices funded on farms across the country. Further, the total annual program spending on CSAF practices in recent years is nearly equal to recently obligated IRA funding. All together, these facts show that CSP is perhaps the single most ready-made tool for farmers to voluntarily tackle climate change in the country, and therefore is among the wisest investments made through the IRA. Ensuring this great work is made permanently possible inside CSP in the next Farm Bill needs to be a top priority for all of Congress.