Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 24, December 18, 2024
(a) The maximum direct
State share of cost-share payments to a participant shall not be more than 75
percent of the projected cost of a structural or vegetative practice. The direct
State share of cost-share payments to a participant shall be reduced proportionately
below 75 percent, or the cost-share limit as set in (a)2 below, to the extent that
total financial contributions for a structural or vegetative practice from all
public and private entity sources exceed 100 percent of the projected cost of the
practice. The total of all public funding shall not exceed 90 percent of the
projected costs of a practice and the direct State share shall be reduced
proportionately to assure same.
1. SSCC shall
provide incentive payments to participants for a land management practice in an
amount and at a rate necessary to encourage a participant to perform the land
management practice that would not otherwise be initiated without government
assistance. Such payment shall not be more than 75 percent of the cost of performing
a land management practice for the full term of the contract.
2. SSCC shall set the cost-share and incentive
payment limits for CCSP as set forth in (a) and (a)1 above. The SSCC shall consider
recommendations of:
i. The designated
conservationist, in consultation with the SCD, the local work group and the State
technical committee for a priority area; or
ii. The NRCS State conservationist, in
consultation with the State technical committee, for participants subject to
environmental requirements or with significant Statewide natural resource concerns
outside a funded priority area.
3. Cost-share payments and incentive payments may
both be included in a contract.
4.
Cost-share and incentive payments will not be made to a participant who has applied
or initiated the application of a conservation practice prior to approval of the
contract.
(b) Based upon the
integration of CCSP with EQIP as described in
N.J.A.C. 2:90-4.1(b), cost share
and incentive payments paid to a person shall be based upon the combined total of
CCSP and EQIP financial assistance funds as allocated by NJDA/SSCC and USDA/NRCS
respectively for any fiscal year. State cost share and incentive payments paid to a
person under this section shall be a percentage of the total of the combined CCSP
and EQIP payments approved for that person which exactly reflects the percentage of
CCSP financial assistance funds allocated to the combined total CCSP and EQIP funds
allocated in any fiscal year. Except as provided in (c) below, total cost share and
incentive payments from CCSP and EQIP to any person from the combined total of CCSP
and EQIP financial assistance funds for any fiscal year shall not exceed $100,000
for any multi-year contract or $30,000 for any fiscal year. The total amount of
State cost share and incentive payments paid to a person may not exceed the above
described percentage of combined financial assistance funds for any multi-year
contract or for any fiscal year.
(c) To
determine eligibility for payments, SSCC shall use the provisions in 7 C.F.R. Part
1400 related to the definition of person and the limitation of payments,
incorporated herein by reference, except that:
1.
States, political subdivisions, and entities thereof will not be persons eligible
for payment;
2. For purposes of applying
the payment limitations provided for in this section, the provisions in 7 C.F.R.
Part 1400, subpart C for determining whether persons are actively engaged in
farming, subpart E for limiting payments to certain cash rent tenants, and subpart F
as the provisions apply to determining whether foreign persons are eligible for
payment, will not apply.
3. The SSCC in
consultation with NRCS State conservationist may authorize, on a case-by-case basis,
payments in excess of $20,000 in any fiscal year, up to the State maximum approval
portion of the combined CCSP and EQIP $100,000 limitation in (b) above. However,
such increase in payments for a certain year shall be offset by reductions in the
payments in subsequent years. A decision to approve payments in excess of the annual
limit will consider whether:
i. The practices in
the system need to be applied at once so that the system is fully functioning to
resolve the natural resource problem;
ii. The natural resource problem is so severe that
resolving the problem immediately is needed;
iii. The producer needs to complete the practices
in one year so that the farming operation is not interrupted or disturbed by the
practice installation over a five to 10 year period; or
iv. The producer can install the practices at a
lower total cost when installed in one year, thereby reducing the program
payments;
4. With respect to
land under CCSP contract which is inherited in the second or subsequent years of the
contract, the $20,000 fiscal year limitation shall not apply to the extent that the
payments from any contracts on the inherited land cause an heir, who was party to a
CCSP contract on other lands prior to the inheritance, to exceed the annual
limit;
5. Any cooperative association of
producers that markets commodities for producers shall not be considered to be a
person eligible for payment; and
6. The
status of an individual or entity on the date of application shall be the basis on
which the determination of the number of persons involved in the farming operation
is made.
(d) The participant,
and the SCD and NRCS, must certify that a conservation practice is completed in
accordance with the contract before the SSCC will approve the payment of any
cost-share or incentive payments.
