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Grassley questions CRP expansion

A Senator is questioning USDA’s expansion of the Conservation Reserve Program. 

Chuck Grassley of Iowa told the Senate Ag Committee hearing on conservation and forestry Wednesday the 2018 Farm Bill also capped CRP at 85% of county land rental rates, but USDA added a 10% inflation adjustment, creating a negative impact. “This increases the chance that the federal government is outbidding young and beginning cash rent farmers, so the federal government would be a very disastrous competitor.”

FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux says the agency considers those economic impacts and input from their county committees when calculating rates.

Grassley says CRP can be a useful tool to address marginal land, but Iowa has the most productive farmland and it should not be placed in permanent conservation.

Grassley says the Ag Committee hearing comes at a critical time because of Russia’s influence on the world’s supply of grain while the Biden administration is taking more American farmland out of production with the 30 by 30 plan and the expansion of the Conservation Reserve Program.