Farmers can starts signing up for the Conservation Reserve Program and CRP Grasslands starting in January.

General signup for CRP opens Jan. 4 and runs through Feb. 12. Signup for CRP Grasslands is open from March 15 to April 23. Both programs are competitive and provide annual rental payments for land devoted to conservation purposes.

“The Conservation Reserve Program and the many focused programs that come under it, like CRP Grasslands, are some of our most critical tools we have to help producers better manage their operations while conserving natural resources,” Richard Fordyce, administrator of USDA’s Farm Service Agency and a Missouri farmer, said in a news release. “As one of our nation’s largest conservation endeavors, CRP has proved to protect our valuable resources, and next year’s signup gives our farmers and ranchers an opportunity to enroll for the first time or continue their participation for another term.”

CRP specifics

The CRP is part of the USDA’s AGriculture Innovation Agenda, which has a goal of reducing the environmental footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050.

•Through this program, farmers and ranchers establish long-term, resource-conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees, to control soil erosion, improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat on cropland. CRP general signup is held annually. A separate CRP Grasslands signup is offered each year following general signup.

CRP Grasslands helps landowners and operators protect grassland, including rangeland, pastureland and certain other lands, while maintaining the areas as grazing lands.

According to the USDA, protecting grasslands contributes positively to the economy of many regions, provides biodiversity of plant and animal populations, and improves environmental quality.

Successes in conservation

Signed into law in 1985, CRP is one of the largest private-lands conservation programs in the U.S., according to USDA. It was originally intended primarily to control soil erosion and potentially stabilize commodity prices by taking marginal lands out of production. The program evolved over the years, providing many conservation and economic benefits.

The USDA points to a few of the program’s successes, which include:

• preventing more than 9 billion tons of soil from eroding, which is enough soil to fill 600 million dump trucks

• reducing nitrogen runoff by 95% and phosphorus runoff by 85%, relative to annually tilled cropland

• sequestering an annual average of 49 million tons of greenhouse gases, equal to taking 9 million cars off the road

• creating more than 3 million acres of restored wetlands, while protecting more than 175,000 stream-miles with riparian forest and grass buffers

• benefiting bees and other pollinators

• increasing populations of ducks, pheasants, turkey, bobwhite quail, prairie chickens, grasshopper sparrows and other birds

For more information on CRP, contact your local FSA Office.

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