Targeting Efficiency in the Conservation Security Program

The much anticipated implementation rules for the Conservation Security Program (CSP), authorized in the 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, were unveiled January 2, in the Federal Register. In addition to describing the proposed rules, the Natural Resources Conservation Service outlines the challenge they faced in constructing a coherent implementation plan for a program that was initially developed as an entitlement program but later faced funding caps. The magnitude of this challenge is aptly summarized by the USDA’s Economic Research Service, which finds that if all of the 1.8 million farms and ranches likely to be eligible for the program were to enroll, the total budgetary cap of $3.77 billion would be completely exhausted in the first sign up