Agricultural News
Oklahoma Land Owners Get 164,444 Acres Accepted into the Conservation Program
Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:15:50 CDT
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has announced that USDA will accept 2.8 million acres offered by landowners under the 41st Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up. The selections preserve and enhance environmentally sensitive lands while providing payments to property owners.
For this 41st general CRP sign-up, more than 38,000 offers were received on about 3.8 million acres nationwide. Enrollment of the 2.8 million acres will bring the total enrollment in the program to 29.9 million acres, leaving sufficient room under the 32-million-acre cap to continue enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, continuous sign-up and other CRP initiatives. The Secretary has asked FSA to continue to consider ways to use continuous enrollments to ensure CRP contains those lands that are most erodible, most valuable to wildlife or that otherwise ensure the program targets the most vulnerable acres.
Here in Oklahoma, Francie Tolle reports that 164,444 acres in Oklahoma were accepted in this latest signup- out of 187,541 that were offered. 1,230 contracts were accepted that add up to the 164,444 acres, with the average rental rate per acre in Oklahoma pegged at $33.23- well below the national average of about $48 per acre. Tolle tells us that we will have 833,289 acres in the long term land retiement program once these new acres enter in and expiring contracts leave the program. That is 2.9% of the total CRP land in the United States. Oklahoma had about twice that percentage of the original CRP in the late 1980s when the main criteria considered was wind erosion.
Under CRP, farmers and ranchers plant grasses and trees in crop fields and along streams or rivers. The plantings reduce soil and prevent nutrients washing into waterways, reduce soil erosion that may otherwise contribute to poor air and water quality, and provide valuable habitat for wildlife. The CRP has restored more than two million acres of wetlands and associated buffers and reduced soil erosion by more than 400 million tons per year.
USDA selected offers for enrollment based on an Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) comprised of five environmental factors plus cost. The five environmental factors were: (1) wildlife enhancement, (2) water quality, (3) soil erosion, (4) enduring benefits and (5) air quality. The minimal acceptable EBI level for this sign-up was 221.
The average rental rate per acre for this sign-up is about $48. USDA implemented a number of measures including using additional EBI point incentives for producers to submit cost-effective offers and producer outreach activities to encourage competitive offers on the most environmentally sensitive lands. These measures will maintain the high environmental benefits while decreasing the historic cost of the program.
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