§ 1470.20 - Application for contracts and selecting offers from applicants.

§ 1470.20 Application for contracts and selecting offers from applicants.

(a) Submission of contract applications. Applicants may submit an application for the agricultural operation CSP at any time to enroll all of their the eligible land into CSP on a continuous basisincluded in their agricultural operation.

(b) Stewardship threshold requirement. To be eligible to participate in CSP, an applicant must submit to NRCS for approval, a contract offer for the agricultural operation that : -

(1) Demonstrates that the applicant's conservation activities, at the time of contract offer, meet or exceed a the stewardship threshold for at least two priority resource concerns; and

(2) Would, at a minimum, meet or exceed a the stewardship threshold for at least one additional priority resource concern by the end of the conservation stewardship contract by:

(i) Installing and adopting additional conservation activities, ; and

(ii) Improving, maintaining, and managing existing conservation activities across the entire agricultural operation in a manner that increases or extends the conservation benefits in place at the time the contract application is accepted by NRCS; and

(3) Provides a map, aerial photograph, or overlay that : -

(i) Identifies the applicant's agricultural operation, ; and

(ii) Delineates eligible land with associated acreage amounts.

(c) Evaluation of contract applications. NRCS will conduct one or more ranking periods each fiscal year.

(1) To the extent practicable, one ranking period will occur in the last quarter of the previous fiscal year or the first quarter of the current fiscal year; .

(2) In evaluating CSP applications for new enrollment or for renewal, NRCS will rank applications based on the following factors, to the maximum extent practicable:

(i) Level of conservation The natural resource conservation and environmental benefits that result from the conservation treatment on all applicable State identified priority resource concerns at the time of submission of the application, ;

(ii) Degree The degree to which the proposed conservation activities effectively increase conservation performance,

(iii) Number of applicable priority resource concerns proposed to be treated to meet or exceed the stewardship threshold by the end of the contract,

(iv) Extent to which other priority resource concerns will be addressed to meet or exceed the stewardship threshold by the end of the contract period, and

(v) Extent to which priority resource concerns will be addressed when transitioning from the conservation reserve program to agricultural production;

natural resource conservation and environmental benefits; and

(iii) Other consistent criteria, as determined by NRCS, including criteria the Chief determines are necessary to ensure that national, State, and local priority resource concerns are effectively addressed.

(3) In the event that application ranking scores from paragraph (2) above are similar, the application that represents the least cost to the program will be given higher priority; and two or more applications receive the same ranking under paragraph (c)(2) of this section, NRCS shall rank those contracts based on the extent to which the actual and anticipated conservation benefits from each contract are provided at the lowest cost relative to other similarly beneficial contract offers.

(4) NRCS may not assign a higher priority to any application because the applicant is willing to accept a lower payment than the applicant would otherwise be eligible to receive.

(d) Weighting of ranking factors. The weight given to each ranking factor may be adjusted to achieve program objectives, as determined by the Chief.

(e) National, State, and local priorities. The Chief may develop and use additional criteria that are determined necessary to ensure that national, State, and local priority resource concerns are effectively addressed.

(f)

Ranking pools.

Ranking pools will be established

States will establish ranking pools in accordance with § 1470.2(

e

d)(1).

(1) Nonindustrial private forest land (NIPF) applications will compete in separate ranking pools

separate from other eligible land

. An applicant with both NIPF and other eligible land

will

may submit one application for NIPF and one application for all other eligible land.

(2)

An applicant with an agricultural operation that crosses ranking pool boundaries will make application and be ranked in the ranking pool where the largest acreage portion of their operation occurs. (3)

Within each State or established ranking pool, NRCS will address conservation access for certain farmers or ranchers, including

:

-

(i) Socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers

,

;

(ii) Beginning farmers or ranchers

, and

;

(iii) Producers who are veteran farmers or ranchers; and

(iv) Organic producers or producers who are transitioning to organic.

(

g

e)Application

pre-approval

preapproval. NRCS will make application

pre-approval determinations during established ranking periods

preapproval determinations throughout the fiscal year based on eligibility and ranking score.

(

h

f) Field verification. NRCS will conduct onsite field verification prior to entering into

an agreement

a conservation stewardship contract to substantiate the accuracy of the information provided by

pre-approved

applicants during the application process and to verify applicability of planned conservation activities.