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USDA issues more than $2 billion in payments for conservation and welfare programs

The USDA Farm Service Agency will distribute more than $1.7 billion through its Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

Assistant Agricultural Programs Administrator John Burge tells Brownfield…

“This provides producers with the opportunity to not only take land out of production that may not be as profitable for them, but also to achieve some of the goals and objectives set out in the law, whether it is improvement of habitat or water quality.

Burge says funding is distributed through one of three CRP programs.

“One of these is the traditional CRP, designed to set aside marginal agricultural land and bring it into permanent cultivation for a contract period of 10 or 15 years. There’s also the ongoing CRP program, designed for these special, ecologically sensitive lands and some of these types of targeted approaches to habitat or water quality improvement. Then the third program is a grassland CRP program, designed to keep the land working,” he says.

Burge says the area registered in the CRP has increased by 21% since 2021.

Eligible farmers and landowners should receive payments within the next two weeks.

Nearly $450 million will also be distributed under the Agricultural Risk and Price Loss Coverage (ARC/PLC) program.

Burge says the next round of enrollment will depend on whether the Farm Bill is extended or reauthorized.

AUDIO: John Burge, USDA FSA