CRP signup begins May 5 with more funds for EQIP, WRP
May 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Doreen Muzzi Farm Press Editorial Staff
Growers can sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program at their local USDA county service center beginning May 5, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said
Veneman made the announcement during an April 22 Earth Day celebration in Maryland. She also announced that USDA is releasing $1.8 billion in funding for other conservation programs including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP).
According to a state-by-state breakdown provided by USDA, individual states will each receive between $733,000 and $69 million in financial and technical assistance from the funding.
Among the Sunbelt states, Texas and California top the list of Natural Resource Conservation Service conservation funding recipients receiving $130.9 million and $98.2 million.
The Southwest states of Oklahoma and Arizona are slated to receive $50.1 million and $25.1 million in NRCS funding.
Missouri leads the list of Mid-South states with $61.4 million, followed by Mississippi with $59.4 million, Arkansas with $52.5 million, Louisiana with $52.2 million, and Tennessee with $28.6 million in NRCS funding.
In the Southeast, Florida tops the list with $53.3 million, followed by Georgia with $41.9 million, Alabama with $29 million, North Carolina with $38 million, South Carolina with $28.1 million, and Virginia with $25.5 million.
“America's farmers and ranchers have made great strides to improve the environment, and this administration is committed to assisting their ongoing stewardship efforts to enhance soil, water and air,” Veneman said.
“These announcements highlight the importance that President Bush places on a strong environmental policy that is compatible with a growing, healthy economy. His 2004 budget includes a record $3.9 billion for conservation on our nation's farmlands, which is more than double the funding level from when he came into office.”
The general signup for CRP, which is in addition to CRP's ongoing continuous signup program, will be May 5 through May 30. Current program participants with contracts expiring this fall can make new contract offers during the sign-up period.
Veneman says only one other general signup for CRP will be offered before the current farm program expires in 2007.
The Conservation Reserve Program pays landowners annual rental payments and up to 50 percent of the cost of establishing conservation practices in exchange for enrolling environmentally sensitive land into the program and out of agricultural production.
Acreage enrolled in the program is then planted to resource-conserving vegetative covers, making the program a major contributor to increases in wildlife populations, Veneman says.
The 2002 farm bill authorized USDA to maintain CRP enrollment up to 39.2 million acres, with USDA reserving 2 million acres of that total for the most environmentally desirable and sensitive land targeted with the continuous sign-up program. All new CRP contracts will become effective either Oct. 1, 2003, or Oct. 1, 2004, whichever the producer chooses.
USDA's Farm Service Agency will again evaluate and rank eligible CRP offers using the Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) for environmental benefits to be gained from enrolling the land in CRP. Decisions on the EBI cutoff will be made after the sign-up period ends, and after analyzing the EBI numbers of all the offers.
Those who would have met the previous sign-up EBI thresholds are not guaranteed a contract under this sign-up, according to USDA officials.
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