Producers’ Net Costs Influence Offers to USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program

The USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is one of the largest and longest-running programs to provide payments for environmental services. Owners of environmentally sensitive cropland who enroll in the program agree to remove the land from crop production and maintain approved conservation cover for the term of the CRP contract, which can be 10 to 15 years. Most land is enrolled in CRP through the General Signup, a national competitive process that operates much like a reverse auction. Producers offer to establish a specific conservation cover practice on their fields in return for a rental rate set by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). FSA offers to reimburse half the cost of establishing conservation covers for enrolled land in addition to making annual rental payments