FY 2007 Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

1. FY 2007Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

2. Conservation Reserve Program Topics Agency Roles and Responsibilities CRP Streamlining Procedures TA Reimbursement Process Next Steps

3. Conservation Reserve Program History – FSA and NRCS have a lengthy working relationship for the delivery of the CRP. This relationship has evolved over the last several years and will continue to change. Requested by OMB, FSA and NRCS streamlined the FY 2006 apportionment process.

4. Conservation Reserve Program History – The major drivers of these changes are based both on statutory changes in how CRP (TA) is funded and the administration’s initiative to; Control costs Improve cost efficiency in CRP delivery Engage the private sector

5. AGENCY ROLES Remain Largely Unchanged • FSA – Administers all aspects of CRP • NRCS – Provides TA • Forest Service/State Forestry Agency – Provides TA on specific tree practices. • SWCD and Other Partners - Promotes and educates our customers on the benefits of CRP, can act as a Technical Service Provider (TSP).

6. AGENCY ROLES Change • TSP – FSA has a new TSP pilot in targeted states with a goal shifting up to 5% of the CRP TA to TSPs. • TSP – Based on the success of this pilot FSA may commit to expanding use and amount of TSP TA funds.

7. Propose Counties for General Sign-up 33 TSP • Kansas - 150 • Nebraska - 241 • North Dakota - 133 • Washington – 410 All offers will not necessary be contracted; NRCS may still provide TA for some of the offers.

8. AGENCY ROLES Change • Emergency Forestry Conservation Reserve Program (EFCRP) – Limited to states impacted by severe storms • Mississippi • Alabama • Louisiana • Florida • Texas • North Carolina

9. Conservation Reserve Program Reimbursement for CRP TA is now being determined using NRCS and FSA program workload models that estimate TA costs on a task basis. As program responsibilities are redefined CRP streamlining are also changed to reflect the reduction in TA work and the TA costs saving.

10. Streamlining/Efficienties These terms are being used to redefine how NRCS will achieve our CRP responsibilities. Our streamlined CRP work products mostly remain the same - we still develop conservation plans and assist producers to implement practices. What changes are the methods or procedures we use to perform the work.

11. Today’s Key Points We have a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that incorparates the streamlined TA responsibilities for CRP. Within the scope of the MOA states will have new flexibility to redefine their field staff’s CRP work tasks which will result in time and cost saving. States can not “over-spend” their CRP allocation

12. Conservation Reserve Program The CRP workload model includes TA work tasks that generally occur over a 2-year period; First Year – Program Eligibility Determinations (CCRP) Planning and Contract Support Development Second Year - Practice Application and Implementation

13. Conservation Reserve Program Within each of the three core performance areas the workload model defines specific work tasks, based on the planning process, and assigns a weighted average amount of time per CRP contract to complete each work task.

14. Conservation Reserve Program CRP “Streamlining” will have different impacts on the program’s different components; General CRP Reenrollment of Expired Contracts Continuous CRP/FWP/CREP

15. “General Sign –Up” TA responsibilities remain largely the same. First year planning and contract development remain unchanged. Through streamlining we need to become more efficient in how we perform; 1) on-site practice layout/survey and; 2) on-site practice check-out Question - Does every practice require on-site assistance during the practice implementation phase (2nd year)?

16. “General Sign –Up” Some specific practices and/or some specific locations may retain the need for on-site assistance for these tasks. However, the overall streamlining goal for NRCS staff to perform these tasks is a time reduction of 50%. Streamlining Goal - The 50% time reduction to perform these two tasks equates to an overall reduction of 6.4% in General CRP TA

17. “General Sign –Up” Each State will be responsible to determine the specific practices/contracts where these reductions will be made; For Example – states with adequate offsite references (digital aerial imagery and soils data) may decide that field visits are not required to perform practice layouts on all contracts. Also practice check out for certain practices may rely on an off-site process.

18. “General Sign –Up” As defined in the MOA new areas of flexibility are for; 1) on-site practice layout/survey and; 2) on-site practice check-out All other General CRP work tasks remain unchanged.

19. “Reenrollments” FSA is currently in the process of working with producers that have CRP contracts that will expire at the end of FY2007 to 2010. Based on their process NRCS will only be involved with those producers that are offered full reenrollment. NRCS is not involved with CRP contract extensions.

20. “Reenrollments” TA responsibilities for reenrolled contracts have been streamlined. Subsequently, the time allocated to perform the work tasks in each of the core areas has also been significantly reduced. The redefined responsibilities will reduce the average time required to perform Reenrolled CRP TA by 52%.

21. “Reenrollments” Reenrolled contracts will need to be re-planned and have a new contract support document developed. All of these contracts will have a previously completed on-site compliance review conducted by FSA. FSA compliance reviews will evaluate the existing practices and cover and these will be shared with NRCS. The majority of these contracts will retain their existing CRP practices and existing vegetation. There is no financial assistance on these contracts.

22. “Reenrollments” States will need to work with field staff to reduce on-site planning and practice implementation for only those contracts where it’s needed. You have the flexibility to use the FSA compliance reviews and office references to minimize on-site evaluations and maximize time savings.

23. “Reenrollments” Use this flexibility so that “easy” reenrollment plans (those not requiring detailed practice design, layout and check-out) when combined with “more difficult” plans will result in the overall 52% reduction in time per contract.

24. “Continuous CRP/CREP/FWP” The FY 2006 CRP streamlining did not changed our TA responsibilities in CCRP. OMB and the Chief have expressed an interest to concerns to identify potential streamlined work tasks for Continuous CRP for FY 2007. Within existing CRP policy field staff should strive to become more efficient.

25. CRP REIMBURSEMENT Our current FY2007 CRP TA request was $85 million. NRCS received ? In the President’s FY 2007 budget CRP TA is $80 million.

26. CRP TA Reimbursement Request Acres Contracts General Signup 35 (2nd Year) 1,500,000 23,500 General Signup 33 (2nd Year) 1,007,793 17,750 Farmable Wetlands 31 (2nd Year) 25,000 1,613 Continuous Signup 31 (2nd Year) 404,000 37,757 Continuous Signup 34 (1st Year) 906,000 53,982 Re-Enrollments 32 (1st Year) 2,460,835 29,154 Re-Enrollments 32 (2nd Year) 2,741,929 32,076 Total Reimbursement Cost $131,092,632

27. FY 2007 CRP REIMBURSEMENT We need to make the most of the current flexibility to more efficiently accomplish the required core CRP work tasks within the available TA allocation. Each state needs to monitor their CRP TA allocation, do not “over-spend” your allocation.

28. FY 2007 CRP REIMBURSEMENT NRCS will work with OMB in the development and finalization of CRP efficiency measures to ensure that they address the concerns identified in the apportionment language.