General sign-up for expanded CRP ends Friday

Editor’s note: Watch for more on this in the next Hi-Line Farm and Ranch special section.

Conservation Reserve Program General sign-up ends Friday, sign-up for a program that has recently expanded its benefits for agriculture producers looking to participate in the fight against climate change and gain a new revenue stream in the process.

The federal program pays agricultural producers to set aside land that may be less productive for the purposes of conservation and carbon sequestration.

United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency Administrator Zach Ducheneaux said the program serves a dual purpose by providing producers the tools and income they need to implement conservation practices on their lands in a way that may not exactly align with customary commodity crop production, while providing them a new revenue stream.

Ducheneaux said the program provides rental payments for land set aside for the project as well as payments for implementing practices like water development and the addition of buffer zones.

He said the program can help out producers who may need a leg up and helps the environment, two goals, that he said are not in conflict with each other.

He said the Biden administration’s goal, as well as his own, is for CRP to be a true working-land conservation program and link the goals of conservation and production.

He said the program has received an increase in support from the administration and has raised the minimum amount of money per acre they can give for land to $15 and is working to make the project more flexible in how land in the program can be used as well.

He said provisions allow for the use of that land in times of disaster, for example, emergency haying and grazing of CRP lands is permitted due to the ongoing drought and ensuing hay shortage.

Ducheneaux said the program creates land that will actually make a huge difference in times of drought by creating perennial forage bases which are far more resistant to drought and can be a huge help to producers who may need extra grazing land for their livestock at that time.

He said these lands draw water deeper into their soil profiles and act as a general drought mitigation tool.

He said these lands also develop perennial root systems which sequester carbon and improve soil health, which will sequester even more carbon in microbes.

Carbon sequestration is a big part of the fight against climate change, which Ducheneaux said doesn’t need to be at odds with the financial interests of ag producers.

CRP, past, present and future

Ducheneaux said the program has existed for decades now, having evolved from a payment-in-kind program which simply paid producers not to use land, and the response to the program has been mostly positive.

However, he said, the program has been underutilized and missed it’s engagement goal by more than 4 million acres this year and he’s hoping these expanded benefits will make it a more viable option for producers in Montana and the U.S.

“It just wasn’t at a level that incentivised participation,” he said.

Ducheneaux said he believes in the program, but under the Trump administration it just wasn’t paying enough to producers to make it a viable option for them, and he hopes the project’s expanded benefits will make it a better option for producers.

He said the ag industry as a whole is supportive of the program, but between low minimum payments and general market volatility, it just wasn’t drawing enough people, and the announcement of the project’s expansion has met with approval from the ag community.

He said the FSA’s target is 27 million acres in the program by 2023, and it was determined that the goal would be impossible without expanding benefits to producers, many of whom could really use an extra resource.

“My vision for it is to continue to become a more viable program among a suite of options for producers to realize some income, keep their land working, and participate in the fight against climate change,” Ducheneaux said.

He said anyone wanting to know more about the program can go to https://www.farmers.gov or talk to the FSA staff members in their local office.

The sign-up deadline for CRP General, which is for land in crop rotation, is Friday, and the deadline for CRP Grasslands, which is focused on helping livestock and forage producers, is next month.

Ducheneaux said nominations for FSA county committees are also open until Aug. 2.

He said these committees are on the front line of decision and policy making for the FSA and they want more participation from people who want to solve problems.