No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises definitions applicable to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)—which provides technical assistance and cost-share payments to agricultural producers for conservation practices addressing natural resource concerns—and expands eligible activities under EQIP's On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials as follows: (1) adds "greenhouse gas emissions reduction planning" to the list of conservation activities under paragraph (6)(B); replaces "natural resource concern or problem" with "resource concern" in paragraph (7); and inserts a definition of "resource concern" as a natural resource condition of the soil, water, air, plant, animal, or energy resource base that impairs the sustainability or intended uses of the resource; and (2) adds "on-farm nutrient recycling" to the list in subclause (II) and "perennial production systems, including agroforestry and perennial forages and grain crops" as new subclause (VIII).
This section revises the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)—which provides payments to producers who implement conservation activities across their operations to address resource concerns on agricultural and forested land—as follows: (1) updates definitions to add “resource concern” (i.e., a natural resource condition impairing sustainability or intended uses), include “enhancements” and “climate change” in eligible activities and concerns, and emphasize “maintained, actively” for structural practices; (2) revises eligible program activities to maintaining, actively managing, and, where practicable, improving existing conservation activities and undertaking additional ones; (3) modifies contract evaluation criteria to equally weight environmental benefits and costs, with added emphasis on targeting soil health improvements, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas reductions, and other priority resource concerns, and eliminates a prior limitation on total contracts; (4) revises contract renewals to allow offers in the first half of the fifth year of a five-year contract if the producer complies, adopts new or improved activities for continued improvement, and meets a stewardship threshold for at least two additional priority resource concerns, with ranking based on full-operation benefits including ongoing active management; and (5) updates payment calculations to cover activities on eligible land types, base rates on maintaining, actively managing, and improving activities, expand income forgone to include economic risk and revenue losses from production changes, yield reductions, organic or perennial transitions, or conservation uses, and extend supplemental payments for advanced rotations, grazing management, or new perennial production systems (i.e., agroforestry, forest farming, multistory cropping, perennial forages, or grains).
This section expands the definition of third-party provider for conservation technical assistance to include individuals (in addition to commercial entities, nonprofits, State/local/Tribal governments, conservation districts, and federal agencies) and expertise in soil health planning, greenhouse gas emissions reduction planning, integrated pest management planning, agroforestry planning, and organic transition planning (in addition to nutrient management planning, watershed planning, and environmental engineering). The section makes parallel expansions to the expertise criteria for third-party provider certification regulations; inserts "or organic" after "sustainability" in subsection (e)(5); and inserts "perennial agriculture system" after "organic" in the subsection (i) heading and after "production" in subsection (i)(2) each place it appears. (As background, these authorities enable USDA to deliver technical assistance for conservation programs such as EQIP and CSP—directly, via agreements, or through payments to participants for approved providers—thereby increasing the availability of specialized expertise for agricultural, forestry, and related land.)
This section revises the agroforestry centers program by (1) defining agroforestry as a land management system intentionally integrating trees and shrubs into crop and animal production to enhance profitability, resilience, conservation, and sustainability (e.g., riparian buffers, alley cropping, silvopasture, forest farming, windbreaks); (2) establishing a National Agroforestry Research, Development, and Demonstration Center at the Forest Service's Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Lincoln, Nebraska, and at least three additional regional centers in cooperation with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, each with appointed directors; (3) broadening program purposes under the centers—from a prior focus on semiarid lands—to emphasize soil health, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas reduction, drought preparedness, and other agroforestry benefits worldwide; (4) requiring the centers to disseminate information on federal, state, local, and Tribal agroforestry support programs; and (5) authorizing regional grant programs at each center for agroforestry projects, including demonstration farms. (As background, the program supports Forest Service research on integrating woody perennials into farming systems to improve environmental quality, economic viability, and resource protection on rural working lands.)