USDA Caps Conservation Reserve Enrollment for 2023

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) enrollment has reached its limit for the first time in more than ten years. USDA’s CRP, a program that pays landowners an annual rent for taking fragile cropland out of production, announced 27 million acres enrolled as of the end of May, reaching the program’s cap. USDA shares that grasslands will become the most prominent element in the reserve, with more than 9 million acres. Signups for fields and other large land tracts were also up earlier in the year.

Enrollment has primarily waned since 2007 due to market factors’ contribution to appealing commodity prices. Grassland CRP is an attractive program as it pays producers an annual rent while still allowing them to graze livestock and harvest hay. USDA says the program helps sequester carbon and increase resiliency to drought and wildfire. Colorado maintains the most Grassland CRP land at nearly 431,000 acres, followed by almost 418,000 in Nebraska and 325,00 in South Dakota.

Read more on CRP enrollment here.