Grain, Feed Firms Want No CRP Increase

July 19, 2001

The National Grain and Feed Association urged the House Agriculture Committee to rescind its proposal to increase the size of the Conservation Reserve Program to 40 million acres and instead invest funds earmarked for that purpose into conservation programs that permit continued use of farmland under sound land stewardship programs.

"U.S. agriculture needs a conservation program that is worthy of continued support from the taxpayer and that does not signal a policy shift toward long-term supply control that would interfere with the United States' long-term competitive position," testified NGFA President Kendell W. Keith. "Just as the rest of the world is beginning to make some needed downward adjustments in plantings to allow recovery in market prices, this is not the time to change policy direction to expand the United States' lone remaining acreage-idling program - the CRP."

Keith made the statements while testifying at a House Agriculture Committee hearing on its proposed framework for a new farm bill, which includes a proposal to increase the CRP from its current 36.4-million-acre statutory limit. The approximately 33 million acres currently enrolled in the CRP represent 10 percent of all U.S. acreage devoted to annual field crops and are equal to about 50 percent of the total acres planted to grain in Canada.

The NGFA is the U.S.-based nonprofit trade association of about 1,000 grain, feed, processing and grain-related firms comprising 5,000 facilities that handle more than two-thirds of all U.S. grains and oilseeds.

The NGFA said the CRP, much of which has been devoted to whole-field enrollments and amounted to more than 25% of total acreage in 135 U.S. counties, has damaged rural communities.

The NGFA cited examples of several counties in which CRP enrollment of 25% or more of cropland has contributed to population declines during the 1990-2000 period. For instance, Nebraska counties with high CRP enrollments have lost an average of 5.8% of their population despite a statewide population gain of 8.4%. Montana counties that have reached or exceeded 25% enrollment in the CRP have lost an average 7.1% of their population, despite a statewide population increase of 13%.

"While the CRP isn't the only reason these counties have seen population decreases, it certainly doesn't help that large numbers of farms are idled," the NGFA said. "Why should the federal government be spending more money to accelerate rural revitalization while also directly applying the brakes to economic activity with an expansion of the CRP program to idle more productive farmland?"

The NGFA noted that the CRP has had its greatest impact on major wheat producing states with 56.5% of CRP enrollments occurring in 10 states that represent about 70% of U.S. wheat production. The CRP, combined with lower wheat prices, has reduced U.S. wheat plantings to their lowest levels since the late 1980s.

Instead of expanding the CRP, the NGFA proposed that the remaining 3.4 million acres not yet enrolled under the CRP's existing statutory limit be devoted to filter strips, buffer strips and other conservation practices that protect water quality.

Other groups are more supportive of expanding the CRP, and the committee's conservation proposals in general have gotten a good reception. Some criticism has come from environmental groups who say the bill shortchanges conservation needs, but livestock and poultry groups who testified this week were largely supportive.