Growers have until Sept. 30 to sign up for the first enrollment period of the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), which includes incentives for farmers who use controlled-release or slow-release nitrogen fertilizer products.
CSP is a voluntary program administered by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to provide financial assistance to agricultural and forestry producers who maintain existing conservation activities and adopt additional ones in their operations. CSP was created by the 2008 Farm Bill and replaces the former Conservation Security Program.
The new CSP program lists the application of controlled release nitrogen fertilizer on cropland and pasture land as a “water quality enhancement activity” that is eligible for government assistance. “CSP offers an enhancement – or payment program – for farmers who use controlled-release or slow-release nitrogen,” reported Agrium Advanced Technologies (AAT), which manufactures ESN®, a branded polymer-coated urea product designed for the agricultural market. “NRCS will determine the payment rate at the end of the initial sign-up. It is expected to be between $12 and $22 per acre of cropland.”
According to guidelines listed on the NRCS web site, applicants for the incentive must use slow-release or controlled-release nitrogen products on all treatment acres, and must have a soil test that is no more than five years old for each treatment area, or field. To qualify, NRCS specifies that nutrient application rates must be “within the Land Grant University recommendations based on soil testing and established yield goals and considering all nutrient sources.” In addition, NRCS says soil surface disturbance must be minimized during nitrogen placement.
“Nutrient management effectively utilizes available nutrient resources to supply crops with nutrients required to efficiently produce food, forage, fiber, and cover while minimizing environmental degradation,” NRCS says on its web site. “The use of slow or controlled release nitrogen fertilizer makes nitrogen available to plants over a longer portion of the growing season to match the plant uptake needs. This limits the loss of nitrogen to leaching and denitrification, and can help control soil emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.”
Documentation requirements under the program specify that for each treated field, growers must list the fertilizer product used; the exact treatment acres; soil test results; the crops grown and the yields, both sought and measured; verification of properly-calibrated fertilizer application equipment; and the nutrient application rates and application dates for each treatment area. In addition, growers must provide a map showing the acreage involved.
“Growers are already dedicated stewards of the land, and we are very pleased to see the government rewarding them for doing the right things to keep farm and rural lands healthy,” said Jeff Novak, AAT’s director of marketing. “We are also proud that our products assist them in achieving these goals.”
Growers interested in the program can complete a checklist available at the NRCS web site at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/csp/. NRCS is offering a continuous enrollment for the program; sign-up for the next fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Landowners who sign up before the Sept. 30 deadline will have until the end of October to complete program eligibility.
The new CSP is available to all producers nationwide. Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie, improved pastureland, non-industrial private forestland, and agricultural land under the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe. Congress capped the CSP acreage enrollment at 12,769,000 acres for each fiscal year nationwide. Payments administered through the CSP carry a $40,000 annual limit per farmer, and a $200,000 limit over the grower’s five-year contract.