Conservation Security Program

The Conservation Security Program (CSP) is a voluntary conservation program in the United States that supports ongoing stewardship of private agricultural lands by providing payments and technical assistance for maintaining and enhancing natural resources. The program provides not only financial, but technical assistance to promote the conservation and improvement of soil, water, air, energy, plant and animal life, and other conservation purposes.

Congress established the CSP under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA), which amended the Food Security Act of 1985. The Conservation Security Program is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The CSP can be used on Tribal and private working lands. All 50 states and U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific basins have all incorporated the CSP. The program provides equitable access to benefit all producers, regardless of size of operation, crops produced, or geographic location. The CSP helps producers maintain conservation stewardship and implement additional conservation practices that provide added environmental enhancement, while creating powerful incentives for other producers to meet those same standards of conservation performance. The NRCS believes "The conservation benefits gained will help farms and ranches be more environmentally sustainable and will increase the natural resources benefits provided to all Americans."

The Conservation Security Program uses a three-tiered approach to pay the land owners. The producer voluntarily chooses the tier for participation. A conservation security plan must be approved in order for the producer to be eligible (3).

Tier I is the first level that land owners can participate in. At this level, the farmer signs a five-year plan that addresses soil quality and water quality to the described minimum level of treatment for eligible land uses on part of the agricultural operation prior to acceptance (3,6,7).

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