USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will very shortly announce the cut-off date for farmer applications to the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) for enrollment in the program during Fiscal Year (FY) 2013.  Based on discussions with NRCS, we expect that the final sign up period will begin later this month and will last for 30 days, or until mid-to-late May.  We will update this information as soon as we have precise dates.

While CSP enrollment is continuous, interested farmers and ranchers will have only 30 days to complete the initial application form to compete for a spot in the 2013 enrollment class for the program.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which helped develop the program and has followed its progress closely, today issued a
 six-page Information Alert on the 2013 sign-up.  In addition to providing the timeline for the sign-up and enrollment process, the Alert includes basic sign-up information and describes changes made to the program for this sign-up, including new conservation enhancements being offered.

NSAC also issued a press release announcing the publication of the Info Alert.

We encourage interested organizations and individuals to post or forward the Information Alert to help get the word out to farmers and ranchers about this pending opportunity.