If Congress follows the farm bill recommendations of the Conservation Coalition, it would revive a $5-an-acre discount on crop insurance premiums for farmers who plant cover crops. The coalition, an alliance of farm, land stewardship, and environmental groups, also said on Wednesday that the 2023 farm bill should raise the enrollment cap for the land-idling Conservation Reserve and maintain the Conservation Stewardship Program, the first USDA working lands program, after cuts in the 2014 and 2018 farm bills.
In six pages of recommendations for the conservation title of the farm bill, the coalition said so-called conservation compliance should remain in force. Created four decades ago, conservation compliance requires farmers who want to qualify for crop subsidies and subsidized crop insurance to practice soil and water stewardship on highly erodible lands and not convert wetlands or grasslands to crop production.
Earlier this month, President Biden called for revival of the Pandemic Cover Crop Program, which provided a $5-an-acre crop insurance discount for planting cover crops.
The Conservation Coalition said the ceiling on Conservation Reserve enrollment should be raised from the current 28 million acres, though it did not suggest a new limit. It also said payment rates should be adjusted during the contract “to fairly compensate producers.” The Conservation Reserve pays landowners an annual rent in exchange for taking fragile land out of production for 10 or 15 years.
The Conservation Coalition’s farm bill recommendations are available here.