WESTSIDE — The deadline for farmers and ranchers to apply to participate in the 2012 Conservation Stewardship Program has been extended until Jan. 27 by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which helped develop the program.
Farmers and ranchers interested in participating in the program need to submit a two-page application form to their local resources conservation office.
The deadline was extended because much of the original sign-up period was scheduled during the year-end holiday season.
The program offers technical and financial assistance to farmers andranchers for conservation and environmental stewardship. Assistance is geared to the active management of existing conservation systems and for starting new activities on land already in agricultural production.
Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie land, improved pastureland, rangeland, nonindustrial private forest lands and agricultural land under American Indian tribal jurisdiction. Applicants must demonstrate they have effective control over the land to be eligible, either through ownership or leases.
The enrollment process is competitive, based on environmental benefits, and will be even more competitive than usual in 2012 because the totalacres to be enrolled will be as much as a third less than the 12.8 million acre per year level provided by the 2008 federal Farm Bill. The 2012 program will have an enrollment cap between 9 million and 10 million acres because of budget cuts in the 2012 Agricultural Appropriations Act.
In the program’s first three years, 2009-11, more than 30,000 farmers and ranchers operating nearly 38 million acres of farm and ranch land signed up. That land is now under five-year, renewable conservation contracts.
For those first three enrollment classes, annual payments are more than $510 million a year on a nationwide basis.
For more information, go to www.sustainable agriculture.net.
News, Pages 12 on 01/25/2012