VA Conservation Stewardship Grant Program

USDA: Natural Resources Conservation Service of Virginia

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Grant amount: US $7,500 - US $200,000

Deadline: May 29, 2020

Applicant type: Indigenous Group Nonprofit Working Professional For-Profit Business College / University

Funding uses: Project / Program

Location of project: Virginia

Location of residency: Virginia

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Overview:

Conservation Stewardship Program

The Conservation Stewardship Program helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resources concerns. Participants earn CSP payments for conservation performance - the higher the performance, the higher the payment. 

Benefits

Through CSP, participants take additional steps to improve resource condition including soil quality, water quality, water quantity, air quality, and habitat quality, as well as energy.

CSP provides two types of payments through five-year contracts: 

  • Annual payments for installing new conservation activities and maintaining existing practices 
  • Supplemental payments for adopting a resource-conserving crop rotation.

Producers may be able to renew a contract if they have successfully fulfilled the initial contract and agree to achieve additional conservation objectives. Payments are made soon as practical after October 1 of each fiscal year for contract activities installed and maintained in the previous year.

Virginia Priority Resource Concerns – Agricultural Land

  • Degraded Plant Condition 
  • Livestock Production Limitation
  • Soil Erosion
  • Soil Quality Degradation
  • Water Quality Degradation

Virginia Priority Resource Concerns – Forestry Land

  • Degraded Plant Condition 
  • Fish and Wildlife – Inadequate Habitat
  • Soil Erosion
  • Soil Quality Degradation
  • Water Quality Degradation

CSP Enhancements

Enhancements are management activities that go above and beyond the minimum conservation practice standard requirements helping the producer achieve a higher level of conservation.

NOTE: Applications to renew expiring contracts are due by May 5.

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website.

Eligibility:

  • Eligible lands include private and Tribal agricultural lands, cropland, grassland, pastureland, rangeland and nonindustrial private forest land.
  • CSP is available to all producers, regardless of operation size or type of crops produced, in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Caribbean and Pacific Island areas.
  • Applicants may include individuals, legal entities, joint operations or Indian tribes that meet the stewardship threshold for at least two priority resource concerns when they apply.
  • They must also agree to meet or exceed the stewardship threshold for at least one additional priority resource concern by the end of the contract. 
  • Producers must have effective control of the land for the term of the proposed contract. Contracts include all eligible land in the agricultural operation. 
  • A person or legal entity may not receive more than $40,000 annually or $200,000 for a five-year contract.