NSAC has published an updated 2025 Farmers’ Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The guide provides an in-depth look at the program and is designed to help farmers, ranchers, and foresters prepare and apply for this comprehensive conservation program that is authorized by the federal farm bill and administered by the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

What is CSP?

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is the nation’s largest conservation program. It is a voluntary program that pays farmers and ranchers for the conservation they already do on their farms and for implementing new practices to help care for the soil, water, air, and wildlife. CSP contracts last five years and pay farmers an annual payment that covers their existing conservation practices and any new practices they implement as part of their contract.

While some USDA programs continue to experience difficulties related to the ongoing funding freeze created by the Administration’s Executive Orders, CSP continues to provide support for farmers via Farm Bill funding. NRCS is able to sign new contracts with farmers right now, though as USDA continues to experience across the board staffing reductions, producers seeking support through all conservation programs should anticipate longer-than-average delays in service and plan accordingly. NSAC strongly encourages producers dissatisfied with these new and unnecessary administrative delays to share concerns with their members of Congress.

What’s New in the Guide?

This updated guide walks farmers and ranchers through some important updates to CSP in 2024, including:

• Increased minimum payments:

The minimum annual payment that farmers receive has been increased significantly from $1,500 to $4,000. This provides more meaningful support for smaller farms, guaranteeing that operations with fewer acres receive material benefit for their conservation efforts.

• New calculations for Existing Activity Payments:

CSP is unique in that it includes an annual payment for farmers already addressing resource concerns within their operations through ongoing conservation efforts. The formula to calculate those Existing Activity Payments has been changed, meaning that farms enrolling in new contracts going forward will receive a slightly larger payment under this updated formula to support the conservation practices they already use.

• Faster approval with Act Now:

CSP applications can now be fast-tracked through the Act Now process that pre-approves applications that meet a minimum ranking score. Farmers do not need to apply separately for Act Now: if their application meets the minimum score, it is automatically considered for pre-approval.

Updates to Payments

CSP payments come in two parts: Existing Activity Payments that pay farmers for the conservation they already have in place and Additional Activity Payments that pay farmers for the new conservation they implement as part of their contracts. For contracts beginning in 2024 onwards, the formula for Existing Activity Payments has changed. 

In the new formula, farmers get a per acre payment based on the land use. The per acre rate varies by land use and the number of resource concerns that already exceed the stewardship threshold (the minimum level of conservation performance that a farm or ranch must achieve to address specific natural resource concerns, which your NRCS agent will help to determine) when a farmer applies. Land use payment rates offered for FY24 contracts and beyond are: 

Payment Example

To illustrate how the new EAP formula works, NSAC calculated a payment for a hypothetical farm. The example is a farm with 200 acres, 150 acres in cropland, and 50 acres in pasture. It is assumed that on the cropland acres, there are strong conservation practices in place that exceed the stewardship threshold (the minimum level of conservation performance that a farm or ranch must achieve to address specific natural resource concerns, which an NRCS agent will help to determine) for 5 resource concerns. On the pastured acres, it is assumed that the farm exceeds the stewardship threshold for 3 resource concerns. 

This farm would also receive $1,800 annual payments (it would be $3,000 if they were a renewing contract) for either of the two land uses where they decide to implement new conservation practices as part of their contract. They are ambitious and plan to implement new conservation on both their cropland and their pasture, for a total of $3,600 of additional annual payments. 

This farm’s annual Existing Activity Payment would be a total of $4,800. Under the old payment model, this farm would have received $4,214, so the new formula means that they will be paid $2,930 more over the course of their contract.

Finally, this farm would also receive payments to cover a portion of the cost of the new conservation practices they implement. While the previous two payments will stay the same for all five years of a contract (barring any major modifications), the payments for new activities will vary each year based on the schedule for implementing those practices. 

Using these payment calculations, farms will receive anywhere from the minimum annual payment of $4,000 per year up to a maximum of approximately $40,000 per year for the length of their contract. 

Check Out the Updated Guide

The 2025 Farmers’ Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program walks farmers and ranchers through the program from interest, to application, to contract payments and monitoring. It shares stories of farmers who have had successful CSP contracts and the types of conservation that CSP can support. The guide contains more information about how and why to apply for a CSP contract.  See NSAC’s recent report, Stewarding Success, to read about how CSP has performed under the 2018 Farm Bill. 

This updated 2025 Farmers’ Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program was supported by the California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN).