NCGA’s
Pat Dumoulin Accepted into the USDA’s Conservation Security
Program (9-3-04)
For National Corn Growers Assocation (NCGA) member Pat Dumoulin
and approximately 190 other farmers in the Kiswaukee Watershed in
Illinois, the recent announcement of the participants in U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s (USDA) Conservation Security Program (CSP)
was news they had been waiting for since the initial announcement
in June.
Pat Dumoulin, a member of the NCGA Production and Stewardship Action
Team, was among 2,188 farmers selected to participate in the intial
round of the CSP.
“Corn
growers have been the stewards of this land for a long time,”
said Dumoulin. “We all have been practicing conservation techniques
for years and now we have a chance to be rewarded for our practices.
It will aid in leaving this land in better shape than we found it
and that is something that we must do.”
The CSP is a
federal farm program that provides financial incentives and technical
assistance to farmers and ranchers who implement conservation plans
on their working lands. Approximately 2,800 farmers applied for
the program. Of the total, 800 were tier I contracts, 883 were tier
II contracts, and 505 were tier III contracts.
The contracts
cover nearly 1.9 million acres and were from the 18 watersheds initially
selected for the program. Payments will begin immediately--the
first check was sent Wednesday. Enrollment data shows 37 percent
of applicants qualified for tier I; 40 percent qualified for tier
II, and 23 percent qualified for tier III.
“Although
there were some reservations in the beginning about the CSP process,
the end result was a very positive experience,” noted Dumoulin.
“The handbook was very easy to fill out, we were already doing
things the CSP regulations wanted us to do such as the soil index
section. It was easy because we already do soil sampling and crop
scouting. I have to say that our NRCS representative made our experience
that much better. He went the extra mile to make this as easy for
us as possible.”
The next
CSP sign up is expected mid-winter. The Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) is soliciting input on the process and CSP requirements,
and NCGA encourages its members to submit comments. Self-assessment
workbooks are available through the NRCS and NCGA. In addition,
NCGA will participate in a CSP Energy Forum in October and encourages
growers to attend. More information on the forum will be available
soon.
For more information on the CSP and the CSP Self Assessment Workbook
or to submit comments, please visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/csp/.