Conservation Reserve Program

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The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary, Federal assistance program of the United States Department of Agriculture. Created in 1985, the program seeks to conserve land and prevent soil erosion. The program pays farmers to plant the land to native grasses and not produce a crop for profit. For family farms, the income from the program can be a significant factor in their continued economic viability. The program is controversial, however, because some non-farmers and urbanites view the program as a way for big agribusiness to get money from the federal government without having to plant anything on land which cannot be farmed profitably in the first place. Some CRP land is open to the public for hiking and hunting.

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Today (Oct 2006) 36.7 Mio acres are protected under this scheme. The contracts normally run for 10 to 15 years, which slows down the possibility to opt out. In 2006 the contracts starting September 2007 were comparably low leading to a decrease of 3 Mio acres under the scheme for 2007. The FSA [Farm Service Agency] pays a rental fee that averaged 43.88$/acre in 2006. In general two parts of the conservation programm have to be distinguished. The far bigger area is normal farmland, while the smaller is “Environmentally desirable land devoted to certain conservation practices”. The farmers can sign up their normal farmland during a certain period and depending upon price they charge below the offered rent, which depends on the relative productivity. Another factor is environmental importance based upon the Environmental Benefits Index [EBI] that is calculated into the offer. Due to the increasing prices for Maize and Soy, a larger than 3 Mio acres outtake of area from the conservation program was anticipated. The impact of this outtake is even smaller as “only 354,771 acres were in the top five corn and soybean producing states”