‘‘(C) funds from the Commodity Credit 
Corporation as provided in paragraph (3) of 
this subsection; and 
‘‘(D) such other sums as may be appro-
priated from time to time to carry out the 
Farmland Stewardship Process. 
‘‘(2) COST SHARING.—It shall be a requirement 
of the Farmland Stewardship Process that funds 
that come from Federal conservation programs that 
are combined into and made a part of a stewardship 
agreement must be matched equally with funding or 
cost share contributions that may be made by State, 
regional, or local agencies and divisions of govern-
ment or from private funding sources. Funds from 
existing programs shall be used to carry out the pur-
poses of those programs that are made a part of a 
stewardship agreement. Funding for other purposes 
must come from the funds provided under subpara-
graphs (B), (C), and (D) of paragraph (1), para-
graph (3), or from the funding contributions made 
by State, regional, or local agencies and divisions of 
government or from private funding sources. 
‘‘(3) ESTABLISHMENT
AND
OPERATION.—Of 
the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation the 
Secretary shall use $200,000,000 for each of the fis-
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cal years 2008 through 2012 to establish the Farm-
land Stewardship Process and to operate it through 
the ‘designated state agency’ selected by each 
State’s governor, as provided in subsection (e). 
‘‘(4) CARRYOVER OF FUNDS.—The funds pro-
vided in paragraph (3) shall remain available until 
expended. 
‘‘(e) PERSONNEL COSTS.—The Secretary shall use 
the Natural Resources Conservation Service to carry out 
the Farmland Stewardship Process in cooperation with the 
State department of agriculture or other designated agen-
cy within the State. The role of the Natural Resources 
Conservation Service shall be limited to federal oversight 
of the process. The Natural Resources Conservation Serv-
ice shall perform its normal functions with respect to the 
conservation programs that it administers. However, it 
shall play no role in the assembly of programs adminis-
tered by other federal agencies into stewardship agree-
ments. 
‘‘(f) STATE LEVEL ADMINISTRATION.—The governor 
of each state shall determine which state agency shall have 
primary responsibility for operating the Farmland Stew-
ardship Process. The governor shall give first preference 
to the state department of agriculture in selecting an 
agency for operation of the process. A State department 
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of agriculture, or other agency designated by the governor, 
may choose to operate the process on its own, or may col-
laborate with another local, State or Federal agency, con-
servation district or tribe. The designated State agency 
shall consult with the agencies with management authority 
and responsibility for the resources affected on properties 
on which stewardship agreements are negotiated and as-
sembled. 
‘‘(g) AGREEMENTS AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary 
shall carry out the Farmland Stewardship Process by en-
tering into service contracts as determined by the Sec-
retary, to be known as stewardship agreements, with own-
ers, operators and producers to maintain and protect the 
natural and agricultural resources on the land. 
‘‘(h) DEFINITION.—The term ‘service contract’ 
means a legally binding agreement between 2 parties 
under which— 
‘‘(1) one party agrees to render one or more 
services in accordance with the terms of the con-
tract; and 
‘‘(2) the second party agrees to pay the first 
party for each service rendered. 
‘‘(i) FUNDING PARTICIPATION.—Any agency partici-
pating in the Farmland Stewardship Process that has the 
authority to enter into service contracts and to expend 
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public funds under such contracts may enter into or par-
ticipate in the funding of a stewardship agreement. 
‘‘(j) NO INCOME LIMITATIONS.—To avoid conflicts 
and ensure that all the purposes and intents of steward-
ship agreements can be carried out, all owners, operators 
and producers who enter into or participate in a steward-
ship agreement shall be exempt from the limitations in 
section 1001D(b)(2)(C) of this Act (7 U.S.C. 1308– 
3a(b)(2)(C)). 
‘‘(k) ADJUSTMENTS
IN CONSERVATION PROGRAM 
ELEMENTS TO RESPOND TO LOCAL CONDITIONS.—(1) 
The Secretary shall consider requests from a State Con-
servationist of the Natural Resources Conservation Serv-
ice, a state Executive Director of the Farm Services Agen-
cy, a designated state agency, or a contracting agency au-
thorized by the Secretary to enter into and administer 
stewardship agreements to make limited adjustments on 
a case-by-case basis to the eligibility criteria, approved 
practices, requirements, and other elements of the con-
servation programs combined into a stewardship agree-
ment. Adjustments may be made to ensure that— 
‘‘(A) the conservation programs combined into 
a stewardship agreement can be more easily imple-
mented in the State; 
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‘‘(B) all program elements are responsive to re-
gional differences and local conditions within the 
State; 
‘‘(C) no program requirement or criteria con-
flicts with or works against the conservation prior-
ities or needs of the State; and 
‘‘(D) no program requirement or criteria pre-
vents one or more programs from being combined 
together through a stewardship agreement. 
‘‘(2) Requests for adjustments shall be granted for 
one or more of the following purposes: 
‘‘(A) To acknowledge, accommodate and re-
spond to regional differences and local conditions 
within the State. 
‘‘(B) To allow sufficient flexibility to enable a 
conservation program to better adapt to the diverse 
situations faced by owners and operators within the 
state, and adapt to the farming practices of the 
State. 
‘‘(C) To allow sufficient flexibility to tailor a 
conservation program to the specific needs, opportu-
nities and challenges offered by individual parcels of 
land. 
‘‘(D) To modify administrative requirements 
that, in the absence of such modification, may limit 
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or prevent the use of a program on eligible agricul-
tural land. 
‘‘(E) To allow owners and operators to receive 
compensation for maintaining previously imple-
mented owner- or operator-financed conservation 
practices and to receive credit for incorporating 
these practices into new contracts. 
‘‘(F) To address the conservation priorities es-
tablished by the State or locality in which the eligi-
ble agricultural land is located. 
‘‘(G) To modify administrative requirements 
that, in the absence of such modification, may pre-
vent one or more programs from being combined to-
gether through a stewardship agreement. 
‘‘(3) Requests for adjustments also can be made that 
will facilitate the coordination and administration of con-
servation programs in the State, including— 
‘‘(A) establishing different enrollment criteria 
than otherwise established by regulation or policy; 
‘‘(B) establishing different compensation rates 
to the extent the parties to the agreement consider 
justified; 
‘‘(C) establishing different conservation practice 
criteria if doing so will achieve greater conservation 
benefits; 
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‘‘(D) providing more streamlined and integrated 
paperwork requirements; 
‘‘(E) providing for the transfer of conservation 
program funds to States with flexible incentives ac-
counts; and 
‘‘(F) providing funds for an adaptive manage-
ment process to monitor the effectiveness of the pro-
gram for the protection of natural resources, eco-
nomic effectiveness, and sustaining the agricultural 
economy. 
‘‘(4) Adjustments may be made only if the purposes 
to be achieved by the program after the adjustments are 
made remain consistent with the purposes for which the 
program was established. 
‘‘(5) For a request for an adjustment to be consid-
ered, a State conservationist, state executive director, des-
ignated State agency or contracting agency must submit 
a request for an adjustment to the appropriate Federal 
official. The official may request documentation in addi-
tion to the documentation required by paragraph (6), or 
may suggest alternative methods of making adjustments 
on the property in question, prior to deciding whether or 
not to grant a request for an adjustment. The response 
shall be provided within 180 days after receipt of the re-
quest. 
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‘‘(6) A request under paragraph (5) shall— 
‘‘(A) explain why a subject property, owner or 
operator or activity qualifies for participation in the 
program; 
‘‘(B) explain the programmatic or conservation 
benefits represented; 
‘‘(C) describe the requested resources and ad-
justments to program implementation (including a 
description of how those adjustments will accelerate 
the achievement of conservation benefits); 
‘‘(D) describe the contribution those adjust-
ments will make to the effectiveness of programs in 
achieving their purposes, in addressing state con-
servation priorities or needs, and in responding to 
local conditions; 
‘‘(E) describe the non-Federal programs and re-
sources that will be available to contribute to the 
proposed project or activity; and 
‘‘(F) request that the official grant the adjust-
ment, based on the documentation submitted. 
‘‘(l) APPLICATION
AND APPROVAL PROCESS.—To 
participate in the Farmland Stewardship Process, an 
owner, operator or producer on eligible agricultural land 
shall— 
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‘‘(1) submit to the Secretary an application in-
dicating interest in the process and describing the 
owner’s or operators property, its resources, and 
their ecological and agricultural values; 
‘‘(2) submit to the Secretary the purpose and 
objectives of the proposed agreement and a list of 
services to be provided, or a management plan to be 
implemented, or both; 
‘‘(3) if the application and list are accepted by 
the Secretary, enter into an agreement that details 
the purpose and objectives of the agreement and the 
services to be provided, or management plan to be 
implemented, or both, and requires compliance with 
the other terms of the agreement. 
‘‘(m) PRIMARY PROGRAM.—In applying to partici-
pate in the Farmland Stewardship Process, an applicant 
must designate one of the programs in this subtitle, such 
as the conservation security program, environmental qual-
ity incentives program, conservation reserve program, or 
the farmland protection program, as the ‘primary pro-
gram’, upon which a stewardship agreement will be based 
and around which conservation practices will be negotiated 
and implemented. 
‘‘(n) EFFECTIVE USE OF FEDERAL RESOURCES.— 
The Secretary shall ensure that Federal resources are eq-
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uitably and effectively distributed through the use of stew-
ardship agreements by taking local conditions, local farm-
ing practices and local costs of production into consider-
ation and by allocating resources based on— 
‘‘(1) the merits of the activities to be carried 
out; 
‘‘(2) the benefits to be derived from the prac-
tices to be installed, the services to be provided, or 
the management plan to be implemented under a 
stewardship agreement; and 
‘‘(3) the opportunities that exist to advance 
conservation objectives in a watershed, region or pri-
ority area for a State. 
‘‘(o) EQUITABLE TREATMENT OF PRODUCERS.—The 
Secretary shall ensure that all rules, criteria and defini-
tions used to determine eligibility for participation by own-
ers, operators and producers in the conservation, cost- 
share, incentive payment, marketing assistance, grant and 
loan guarantee programs administered by the Secretary 
that may be combined into a stewardship agreement are 
as inclusive as possible and extend opportunities to partici-
pate to as many owners, operators and producers as pos-
sible. In particular, the Secretary shall ensure that— 
‘‘(1) all owners, operators and producers that 
maintain land in agricultural uses, have bonafide ag-
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ricultural operations and consistently derive an on-
going and substantial portion of their revenues from 
agriculture and agriculturally-related enterprises 
shall be eligible to participate in the programs ad-
ministered by the Secretary that are combined into 
a stewardship agreement; 
‘‘(2) no producer shall be prevented from par-
ticipating in these programs, nor be declared ineli-
gible for participation under the Department’s No-
tice of Solicitation of Applications (NOSA) defini-
tions, if said producer is a publicly-held company, 
nor if said producer should derive income and reve-
nues from an integrated agricultural operation, busi-
ness activities unrelated to agriculture or as a result 
of land sales that make the revenues derived from 
agricultural production less than 50 percent of its 
earnings in any one year. 
‘‘(p) INCREASED PARTICIPATION BY LARGE OWN-
ERS, OPERATORS AND PRODUCERS.—The Secretary shall 
recognize that individuals, companies and corporations 
that own and operate large land holdings that are devoted 
primarily to agricultural uses can have a positive impact 
on advancing the objectives of the Department’s conserva-
tion programs. The Secretary shall ensure that the criteria 
and procedures used for determining eligibility and evalu-
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