The Conservation Reserve Program and Its Effect on Land Values

Some farmers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in 1986 and 1987 may have earned more under the CRP than they would have if they had not enrolled in the CRP and had farmed or rented out their land instead. The difference in earnings may have resulted in as much as a 7-percent average increase in values for enrolled land. The CRP may have also cushioned the decline in all land values. U.S. land values fell 8 percent under the CRP between 1986 and 1987, possibly 0.3 percentage point less than they would have fallen without the CRP