One of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) most competitive Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) sign-up periods in history is approaching the Feb. 26 deadline.
“The Conservation Reserve Program has been and continues to be a key piece of USDA’s conservation strategy, and with this competitive sign-up we are encouraging applications that offer the greatest environmental protection,” Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
For the past three decades, the voluntary conservation program has provided financial incentives to farmers and ranchers to remove environmentally vulnerable land from agricultural production to be planted with certain grasses, shrubs and trees that improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and increase wildlife habitat.
As of January 2016, 23.6 million acres were enrolled in CRP, with contracts for more than 1.6 million acres set to expire this fall.
The statutory limit on the number of acres that can be enrolled in the program is 24 million acres.
USDA announced submissions will be ranked according to environmental benefits in comparison to all other offers nationwide. The accepted offers will be announced after the enrollment period ends and offers are reviewed.
A record number of more than 830,000 continuous CRP acres were enrolled in 2015.
For more information on Farm Service Agency (FSA) conservation programs, visit a local FSA office or go to www.fsa.usda.gov/conservation. Click here to locate an office.