The United States Department of Ag recently announced some changes to help stop the drop in farmers enrolling land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The goal is to enroll up to four million new acres, which is why they’re now offering incentives to encourage farmers to enroll.
“We recently announced the expansion of our Conservation Reserve Program, looking forward to adding four million acres to that program. Those four million acres will essentially allow us to store 3.6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, prevent 90 million pounds of nitrogen from entering into our waterways, and ensuring that 33 million tons of sediment and topsoil get preserved for productive agriculture,” Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
He also talked about how CRP rental rates are going up. “We’re going to utilize the opportunity to increase rental rates, with a focus on highly erodible land, as well as the expansion of pilot programs that have worked well: the SHIP program in the Upper Midwest, the Clean 30 Program that’s been utilized in the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes will now be expanded nationally throughout the entire 50 states. We’ll utilize incentives for climate-smart practices, and we will also provide more resources for technical assistance through NRCS as a result of this expansion effort.”
USDA also plans to make more funding available to help get conservation projects established. “We’re also announcing 330 million dollars to be funded and to be invested in 85 rural conservation partnership program projects in 45 states and over eight critical conservation areas. This resource will help to leverage and attract an additional 400 million dollars into these projects, with a focus on drought relief, enhanced soil health, and expansion of wildlife habitat,” Vilsack said.
The National Resources Conservation Service is also making some funding available to help promote conservation in rural areas. “A companion effort on the part of NRCS is to announce a series of conservation innovation grants,” he mentioned some of the specifics of the grants, “Twenty-five million dollars will be focused on innovation trials: a significant percentage of that will be invested in soil health practices. Also, rural development will announce a 487-million-dollar investment in a wide variety of projects, including renewable energy projects, infrastructure for higher blends of biofuels being made more available in 20 states, an electric loan effort to enhance clean energy production for rural America, as well as enhanced water resources.”
