USDA proposes use of a reverse auction to maximize the environmental benefits of targeted enrollment of land into the Conservation Reserve, according to a Federal Register notice. The notice says comments will be accepted until Feb 15 on the final supplemental environmental impact statement for the reserve, which pays an annual rent to landowners to idle fragile land for 10 years or more. The 2014 modified the program so USDA prepared the environmental statement to reflect its proposed rule changes.
USDA says it would use the reverse auction “when targeting enrollments for certain current of new initiatives” to increase environmental benefits generated per dollar spent. “A reverse auction is simply a process in which many ‘sellers’ compete with each other for the attention of a single ‘buyer,” who then selects the most attractive offers from them. Appropriately developed, a limited reverse auction may motivate producers to submit a bid near the minimum they are willing to accept to enroll” in the reserve, says USDA. “Targeted enrollment could enable (USDA) to meet the reduced (acreage) cap” of 24 million acres in 2017, said the environmental statement.
Payments usually are linked to the average rental rate in the area where the land is located. The program is projected to cost $1.8 billion this year with an enrollment of 24.2 million acres at an average rent of $66 an acre.
An estimated 3 million acres would be eligible for an early exit during this fiscal year from the reserve under a provision of the 2014 farm law. It allows landowners to terminate contracts that have been in place for at least five years.
The final supplemental EIS is available here. A one-page USDA comparison of Conservation Reserve provisions under the 2014 and 2008 farm laws is available here. The USDA home page for the Conservation Reserve, the government’s largest land-idling program, is available here.
Also, USDA extended the comment period to Jan 20 on its interim final rule for the Conservation Stewardship Program. The deadline had been Jan 5. The Federal Register notice is available here.