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USDA Accepts More Than 1 Million Acres in Offers Through Conservation Reserve Program General Signup

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2023 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting more than 1 million acres in this year’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) General signup. This is one of several signups that USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is holding for the program. The results for CRP General signup reflect the continued importance of CRP as a tool to help producers invest in the long-term health, sustainability, and profitability of their land and resources.

The signup resulted in the acceptance of 24,609 CRP acres in Nebraska.

“This year’s General CRP signup demonstrates the value and continued strength of this voluntary conservation program, which plays an important role in helping mitigate climate change and conserving our natural resources,” said Tim Divis, FSA Acting State Executive Director in Nebraska. “Today’s announcement is one of many enrollment and partnership opportunities within CRP, including opportunities through our working lands Grassland CRP, Continuous CRP, and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). USDA will continue working to ensure producers and landowners have the information they need to take advantage of the options that work best for their operations.”

Offers for new land in this General CRP signup totaled about 295,000 acres nationwide. Producers submitted re-enrollment offers for 891,000 expiring acres, reflecting the successes of participating in CRP longer term. The total number of CRP acres will continue to climb in the coming weeks once FSA accepts acres from the Grassland CRP signup, which closed May 26. Additionally, so far this year, FSA has received 761,000 offered acres for the Continuous CRP signup, for which FSA accepts applications year-round.

The number of accepted acres that are enrolled in General CRP will be confirmed later this year. Participating producers and landowners should also remember that submitting and accepting a CRP offer is the first step, and producers still need to develop a conservation plan before contracts become effective on October 1, 2023. Each year, during the window between offer acceptance and land enrollment, some producers ultimately decide not to enroll some accepted acres, without penalty.

General CRP Signup

The General CRP Signup 60 ran from February 27 through April 7, 2023.

Through CRP, producers and landowners establish long-term, resource-conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees, to control soil erosion, improve soil health and water quality, and enhance wildlife habitat on agricultural land. In addition to the other well-documented benefits, lands enrolled in CRP are playing a key role in climate change mitigation efforts across the country.

Other CRP Signups

Other opportunities to participate in CRP come through:

Grassland CRP: This is a working lands program that helps producers and landowners protect grassland from conversion while enabling haying and grazing activities to continue. This year’s signup for Grassland CRP ran from April 17 through May 26.

Continuous CRP: This is an ongoing signup in which producers and landowners can enroll throughout the year. Offers are automatically accepted provided the producer and land meet the eligibility requirements and the enrollment levels do not exceed the statutory cap.

Continuous CRP special initiatives available in Nebraska include the Migratory Birds, Butterflies and Pollinators CRP State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE); the Upland Wildlife CRP SAFE; and the Platte-Republican Resources Area Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Each of these programs are available in designated parts of the state. Contact the nearest county FSA office for more information.

Clean Lakes Estuaries and Rivers (CLEAR) initiative or CLEAR30: CLEAR30 is a signup opportunity under that initiative available nationwide. It gives producers and landowners across the country the opportunity to enroll in 30-year CRP contracts for water quality practices.

More Information

To learn more about FSA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center. Producers can also prepare maps for acreage reporting as well as manage farm loans and view other farm records data and customer information by logging into their farmers.gov account. If you don’t have an account, sign up today.