The Conservation Reserve Program

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is part of the broader Farm Bill and was signed into law on 23 December 1985 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. It pays farmers, as a part of a 10-15 year contract, to let agricultural land idle and provide valuable acreage for conservation purposes, most often grassland. This land provides increased biodiversity and habitat for wildlife, promotes carbon dioxide sequestration in the growth of new biomass and cessation of tilling, and prevents soil erosion, among other benefits. As of November 2013 roughly 10.4 million hectares were classified as CRP land. This is down, however, from a peak of 14.9 million hectares in 2007. Farmers are increasingly leaving the CRP at the end of their contracts and converting the land back to cropland in part because growing crops is becoming more lucrative than the yearly government-paid rent to let the land lay fallow. Rising commodity prices, as well as increased government subsidies and likely improved farming practices and genetically modified crops, have contributed to the decline of CRP enrollment and increased the conversion of previously uncultivated land to agricultural use.

Contributed by Jennifer Abplanalp
Course: Modern Global Environmental History
Instructor: Dr. Wilko Graf von Hardenberg
University of Wisconsin–Madison, US