Innovative Practices for Soil Health Act of 2025

This legislation, titled the "Innovative Practices for Soil Health Act of 2025," seeks to significantly bolster the focus on soil health , carbon sequestration , and greenhouse gas emissions reduction within key United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation initiatives. It amends the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to integrate these environmental goals more explicitly into program definitions, eligible practices, and evaluation criteria. Under EQIP, the bill adds "greenhouse gas emissions reduction planning" as a conservation practice and expands eligible on-farm innovation trials to include "on-farm nutrient recycling" and various "perennial production systems," such as agroforestry. For CSP, it clarifies that conservation activities must be actively managed and, where practicable, improved, while also incorporating climate change into resource concerns. Crucially, CSP contract evaluations will now prioritize improvements to soil health, increases in carbon sequestration, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The bill also modifies CSP contract renewal processes, requiring producers to demonstrate continued improvement and meet additional stewardship thresholds for priority resource concerns. Payments under CSP will be adjusted to reflect economic risks and revenue losses associated with transitioning to resource-conserving or perennial production systems. Furthermore, the Secretary of Agriculture is mandated to conduct outreach for soil health and carbon sequestration and offer payments for soil testing to track these impacts. Beyond direct program amendments, the legislation expands funding and administration provisions to include soil health planning , greenhouse gas emissions reduction planning , and agroforestry planning. It also establishes a National Agroforestry Research, Development, and Demonstration Center in Nebraska and at least three regional agroforestry centers. These centers will focus on research, development, and promotion of agroforestry systems that build soil health, enhance carbon sequestration, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also facilitating the adoption of agroforestry through information dissemination and regional grant programs.