The Agriculture Department is accepting proposals for Regional Conservation Partnership Program projects as it looks to dole out $1.5 billion in funding for the program this fiscal year, Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday.
Project proposals must be submitted by July 2, Vilsack said during a trip to Mankato, Minnesota.
The RCPP program, first authorized in the 2014 farm bill, allows private sector organizations and state governments to partner with the USDA for conservation projects meant to address issues at the landscape scale. These projects can span regions or watersheds, like the Prairie Grasslands Region or the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
The maximum amount of funding the agency under RCPP is $10 million and the minimum is $250,000.
Demand for the program last year was high. Applicants for fiscal 2023 RCPP funding submitted requests for $2.2 billion worth of projects, more than four times the $500 million that was available.
This fiscal year, the agency will have more money to spend, due to an increase in the amount of Inflation Reduction Act funding that is available. A total of $754 million in net budget authority for RCPP was granted to the agency in FY2024 through the IRA, compared to $250 million in FY2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. These funds are specifically for climate-focused projects.
“We had unprecedented demand for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program last year, showing the robust interest in conservation from farmers and ranchers,” Vilsack said in a news release. “Through the increase in funding from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, we’re able to invest even more this year in this important program, increasing our impact across the landscape."
The agency also has $300 million in annual budget authority for the program through the farm bill. Unlike the IRA dollars, these funds are not restricted to climate-focused projects.
The $1.5 billion in FY2024 RCCP funding, according to a press release, will be for two different types of projects: RCPP Classic and RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements. Classic projects are "implemented using NRCS contracts and easements with producers, landowners and communities in collaboration with project partners," while for AFA projects, partner organizations work with farmers directly.
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The agency also announced a slate of actions it is taking to streamline the program, which a USDA slide presentation obtained by Agri-Pulse last year says spurred previous complaints from partner organizations about its complexity and its drawn-out proposal and contracting processes.
The updates, according to the press release, include allowing program partnership and supplemental agreements to be executed simultaneously, updated "policy and business tools to streamline the development of RCPP agreement deliverables," in-depth training for state-level staff, and additional authority for state conservationists.
The agency is also working on "model easement deeds to streamline implementation of RCPP easements that use common deed terms for specific land uses," the release said.
NRCS aims to reduce negotiation time from 15 months to six months this year, the release said.
Applicants can apply at the RCPP portal on the Natural Resources Conservation Service website.
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