The Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service says USDA has nearly completed work on the economic analysis and rules for the new Conservation Stewardship Program. According to Dave White - USDA plans to deliver proposed rules to the Office of Management and Budget yet this week. He’s hopeful signup for fiscal ’09 will begin in August or September - with field verification done in September and contracts offered in October.

According to White - the minimum requirement for the new CSP is meeting one resource of concerns on the entire operation. An example is meeting soil erosion on an entire farm. The states will determine what the resources of concern are - so while air quality might be a resource of concern in California - it might not be in Alaska. White says a producer also must be willing to meet one additional priority resource of concern within the five-year contract.

The new Conservation Stewardship Program can enroll 12.7-million acres each year from 2009 to 2012 at a national average of 18-dollars per acre. But White says USDA won’t know what the reimbursement per acre will be until they’ve had the first signup. Future signups will offer a fixed national price per acre for each type of land based on that first signup.