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CRP increases still up for debate

House Ag committee chairman Mike Conaway says a new funding source will be needed for CRP acres to increase in the new farm bill.

Ranking Member Collin Peterson of Minnesota wants to increase CRP acres after it was reduced in the 2014 Farm Bill, but Conaway says he needs to know where the new money would come from, “Peterson wants to raise the CRP acres, I think he mentioned 40 million acres—never been that high—but he’ll have to find out where the money comes from in order to do this.”  Conaway says voluntary conservation measures work dramatically better than regulations and supports conservation compliance in farm bill programs.

Peterson says while he expects the 2018 Farm Bill to be similar to the last one, he wants to take CRP back to its original intent to improve wildlife habitat and water quality.  “We still don’t have all the land in CRP that should be there and we still have land that’s in CRP that should be farmed, and we still haven’t gotten that fixed because I think we’ve gotten off on tangents.”

Peterson says he’s not sure the program can increase to 40 million acres but he’d like to try.

House leaders made their comments to reporters during this week’s AgriPulse Farm Bill Summit in Washington D.C.