Agriculture Cost Share Program

What is ACSP?
A voluntary program to protect water quality by installing best management practices on agricultural lands. This approach is supported by financial incentives, technical and educational assistance, research, and regulatory programs provided to farmers by local soil and water conservation districts.

Who is eligible?
Landowners or renters of an existing agricultural concern in operation for more than three years.

Why is this program important?

On many agricultural lands soil erosion, excessive fertilizer use, animal waste contamination and improper use of chemicals harm nearby water sources either directly, or when hard rains wash these pollutants into nearby streams, rivers and lakes.

The ACSP helps protect North Carolina’s valuable water resources from nonpoint source pollution (NPS) by working with farmers on a voluntary basis to install best management practices (BMPs) on their agricultural lands.

How does ASCP work?
ACSP provides farmers with cost-sharing funds and technical design assistance to install best management practices on their agriculture land to prevent NPS pollution and protect water quality in waterways adjoining their agricultural lands.

Farmers submit an application with their local Soil and Water Conservation District. Applications are ranked based on county resource concerns with farmers receiving up to 75% of the pre-determined average cost of installed BMPs used to protect water quality in streams adjoining their agriculture land. A yearly cap of $75,000 applies.

For more information on the NC Agricultural Cost Share Program, visit: 
http://www.ncagr.gov/SWC/costshareprograms/ACSP/index.html