Pennsylvania Farmers can Benefit from New NRCS Conservation Program September 11 Webinar Briefing on

Online, September 8, 2009 (Newswire.com) - A newly revised conservation program for Pennsylvania growers will reward them for adopting new environmentally safe practices, but to be eligible producers must apply by the end of September.
Penn State Cooperative Extension will be offering a free webinar in partnership with the program sponsor, the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), on Friday, September 11 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM at http://breeze.psu.edu/AgEnvPartnership to brief Pennsylvania's conservation districts, Extension, ag-consultants, and producers with the program opportunities, benefits, and schedule. According to Barry Franz, Pennsylvania's assistant state conservationist for programs, the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), funded by NRCS, encourages producers to continue existing conservation practices and rewards them for adopting new ones. CSP will administer five-year contracts to growers and provide financial and technical assistance to conserve and enhance soil, water, air, and related natural resources on their land.
The program will be available nationally on 12.8 million acres for 2010. Pennsylvania will split its acreage into eight districts statewide in which growers will compete with other growers within the same district for contracts. Dr. David Biddinger, tree fruit entomologist and biocontrol specialist at Penn State, noted that the signup period for the first round of rankings must be completed by September 30. "Growers familiar with other conservation programs such as Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) will be filling out the same forms at their local NRCS office, but will indicate the CSP program preference instead," he explains. "Credit will be given to growers for existing conservation activities in the ranking of applications."
CSP payments to a grower may not exceed $40,000 in any year nor more than $200,000 over any five year period. Estimated payments are $12 to $22 per acre with no limits on acreage. Over 80 practices are currently available for funding across a range of field, horticultural and other crops.
For more information on the program, growers can contact their local NRCS office or go to the CSP website at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/new_csp/csp.html. The September 11 webinar briefing requires the viewer to obtain a free "Friends of Penn State" account in advance by visiting https://breeze.psu.edu/AgEnvPartnership. For more information on the webinar program, contact Kristen Saacke Blunk, Director of the Penn State Agriculture and Environment Center at (814) 863-8756.
The Penn State Agriculture and Environment Center is a joint initiative of Cooperative Extension and the College of Agricultural Sciences' Environment and Natural Resources Institute working with conservation partners throughout the state including the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, State Conservation Commission, and others. The Agriculture and Environment Partnership webinar series provides practitioners who serve producers across the Commonwealth with timely, relevant information about conservation research, programs and opportunities. For more information, contact the Agriculture and Environment Center at (814) 863-8756 or visit http://www.aec.cas.psu.edu.
Also working in partnership, the Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and urban settings. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://www.paipm.org. To view our archived news releases, see Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/10.htm.