USDA
Invests $1.7 Billion to Protect Sensitive Agricultural Lands through
Conservation Reserve Program
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[November 04, 2016]
USDA will issue nearly $1.7 billion in payments to more than
half of a million Americans who have contracts with the government
to protect sensitive agricultural lands. The investment, part of the
voluntary USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), will allow
producers to protect almost 24 million acres of wetlands, grasslands
and wildlife habitat in 2016.
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CRP provides financial assistance to farmers and ranchers who
remove environmentally sensitive land from production to be
planted with certain grasses, shrubs and trees that improve
water quality, prevent soil erosion, and increase wildlife
habitat. In return for enrolling in CRP, USDA, through the Farm
Service Agency (FSA), provides participants with rental payments
and cost-share assistance. Landowners enter into contracts that
last between 10 and 15 years.
More than 1.3 million acres were newly enrolled in CRP in fiscal
year 2016 using the continuous enrollment authority, triple the
pace of the previous year. In fiscal year 2016, FSA also
accepted 411,000 acres through its general enrollment authority,
plus 101,000 acres in the new CRP-Grasslands program, which
balances conservation with working lands. More than 70 percent
of the acres enrolled in CRP-Grasslands are diverse native
grasslands under threat of conversion, with more than 97 percent
of the acres having a new, veteran or underserved farmer or
rancher as a primary producer.
CRP has sequestered an annual average of 49 million tons of
greenhouse gases, equal to taking nine million cars off the
road, and prevented nine billion tons of soil from erosion,
enough to fill 600 million dump trucks.
CRP payments have been issued to all the producers enrolled in
CRP in Illinois.
For more information about CRP, contact your local FSA office or
online at www.fsa.usda.
gov/crp . Visit
www.fsa.usda.gov/crpis30 or follower Twitter at
#CRPis30 for program anniversary background and success stories.
To locate your local FSA office, visit
http://offices .usda.gov.
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Questions?
Please contact your local County FSA Office with any questions you
may have regarding this message.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file
a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of Adjudication, 1400
Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (866)
632-9992 (Toll-free Customer Service), (800) 877-8339 (Local or
Federal relay), (866) 377-8642 (Relay voice users).
[USDA Farm Service Agency]
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