Washington, DC — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has accepted 2.8 million acres into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in 2021, an enrollment short of the 4 million acres sought by the Biden administration.
Almost 1.9 million acres were enrolled through the general signup that ended in July, noted the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) in an Aug. 23 announcement.
FSA also has accepted about 897,000 acres for enrollment through the continuous signup, which remains open.
Additional acreage is expected to be enrolled through the continuous signup process and through the CRP Grasslands signup, which closed last week.
USDA said it expects to enroll more acres into CRP than the 3 million acres that expire on Sept. 30. But the program will remain below the cap of 25.5 million acres set by the 2018 farm bill for fiscal 2022, which starts Oct. 1.
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About 20.6 million acres are currently enrolled in the program. FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux said USDA will be about 4 million acres below the enrollment target.
USDA announced on June 14 that it would offer CRP rental rates that are 10 percent more than the maximum allowed by the 2018 farm bill.
Similarly, USDA announced a CRP grasslands minimum rental rate of $15 per acre, which is more than the national average pastureland cash rental rate.
The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) responded with a statement noting that Congress established the maximum CRP rental rate levels to help ensure CRP is targeting marginal farmland and not competing with farmers for productive farmland.
The 2018 farm bill established the maximum CRP rental rates for land enrolled through general sign-ups at 85 percent of each county’s average cash rental rate and 90 percent for land enrolled under continuous CRP sign-ups.
“Programs that increase acreage idling in the United States weaken our food and agricultural supply chains and send market signals to competitors to plant more acres, resulting in negative climate and environmental impacts,” NGFA noted in its June statement
- From the Aug. 27 NGFA Newsletter
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