The USDA will hold its first “general” signup for the land-idling Conservation Reserve Program under the 2018 farm bill in early December, and “we expect to enroll a large number of acres,” said Deputy Agriculture Secretary Steve Censky on Thursday. The 2018 law raised the ceiling for enrollment to 27 million acres from the 24 million-acre limit set in 2014.
Turnover in the program, which pays landowners an annual rent to set aside fragile land for 10 years or longer, could amount to several million acres in the near term due to the increased acreage allowed by the farm law and the expiration in 2020 of contracts on 5.2 million acres. Contracts on an additional 3 million acres will run out in 2021. At present, 22.3 million acres are in the reserve.
During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, Censky said the Conservation Reserve signup would be followed by an enrollment period for grasslands conservation and then for a short-term land-idling initiative. The 2018 farm law reserved 2 million acres in the Conservation Reserve for grasslands. Created in 1985, the Conservation Reserve Program is the largest long-term federal land-idling program.