The program, created in 1985, protects fragile farmland by paying selected farmers to stop growing crops on highly erodible land. The program is particularly tempting to some farmers during the current farm crisis. USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Dallas Smith says the program helps reduce soil erosion and expands and restores wildlife habitat while helping strengthen farm income. The Secretary has pledged that he will use his full authority to encourage farmers to use the CRP to sustain agriculture and help farmers stay in agriculture production. Smith says the program pays competitive rental rates.
Applicants fill out an evaluation to determine the environmental sensitivity of their land.
Not every bid will be accepted. Only 25 percent of a county's land can be enrolled in the program. Our intent here is not to make the CRP more appealing then renting the land to someone to grow a crop on. But if the acreage is environmentally sensitive, we want to take it out of production and plant it to some type of soil preserve and crop or cover, if you will, so we will have land for food for future generations. Seventh District DFL Congressman Collin Peterson recently asked the USDA to expand the CRP to cover nine northwest Minnesota counties, which were previously locked out of the program.