Compared to last year, the USDA doubled the number of acres in the CRP Grassland Signup period by enrolling 2.5 million acres. Gloria Montaño-Green, USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, says the Grassland acres helped the total CRP signup to bypass five million acres.
“We did a huge announcement today, announcing more than 2.5 million acres of grasslands Conservation Reserve Program, really targeted to preserve and to be able to add support for conservation programs, bringing the total CRP Signup to more than 5.3 million acres in 2021,” she said. “We did a lot of work to be able to incentivize and to increase the enrollment, to be able to share the value it has for producers and the value it has for climate change mitigation. The announcement today shows the fruits of that labor and how we’re able to increase the signup.”
USDA’s goal was to get four million acres signed up, which they exceeded significantly. The big question is why? What’s different this year from last year?
“I attribute it to a few things: I think it’s the incentives that were offered to be able to restructure, the education and outreach that was done to understand the value it has, to be able to show that this is something that is good for agriculture as well as good for conservation,” Montaño-Greene explained. “It was really robust education and outreach and targeting in really key communities and then also the incentives that we provided.”
She said all in all, setting aside acreage is good for the environment. USDA did receive expanded signups from new locations, but the majority of the expansion came from areas that typically did well in CRP in the past.
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