Agriculture Policy

By Max Fisher, Vice President of Economics and Government Relations The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) released a final rule on Oct. 9 updating the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) as required by the 2018 farm law. First created in 2002, CSP is a conservation program for working agricultural lands, such as cropland and grazing land. The farm law authorizes four main conservation programs: CSP, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Agricultural Conservation Easement ... Read More

By Bobby Frederick, Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy With 60 days until the November 2020 presidential election, Congress has about four weeks to consider unfinished legislative business before the home stretch of campaigning that will decide who leads the House, Senate and White House in 2021. Here are some of the legislative questions NGFA members may be asking: Will There Be Another Round of COVID-19 Economic Stimulus? Congress worked at lighting speed to authorize more than $3.5 trillion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April. Since then, ... Read More

By Bobby Frederick, Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy The Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a meeting for June 24 to consider reauthorization of the U.S. Grain Standards Reauthorization Act of 2020 (USGSRA 2020). This meeting will mark the first time the committee has gathered in-person since the COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered operations on Capitol Hill. As a result, the committee’s business meeting will be conducted in a large room within the Dirksen Senate Office Building to allow for more adequate social distancing than what would be possible in ... Read More

By Max Fisher, Vice President of Economics and Government Relations The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has rolled out two new Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pilot programs – the Soil Health and Income Protection Program (SHIPP) and CLEAR 30. Both pilot programs were authorized by the 2018 farm law and are offering enrollments in 2020.  SHIPP is restricted to landowners in the Prairie Pothole region (Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota) and the rationale for the program is to create an alternative within CRP that is shorter in ... Read More

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced March 26 the acceptance of more than 3.4 million acres in the recently completed general Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) signup, the first general signup enrollments since 2016. The 2018 farm law established a nationwide acreage limit for CRP, with the total number of acres that may be enrolled capped at 24.5 million acres in 2020 and growing to 27 million by 2023. USDA currently has 22 million acres enrolled within the 24.5 million acreage cap, with contracts totaling 4.5 million acres set to expire on Oct. 1, 2020.  While the ... Read More

By Bobby Frederick, Director of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy Congress and President Trump are on the verge of delivering a historic $2 trillion measure designed to help stabilize the economy in response to the adverse economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The measure would provide direct payments to many Americans, hundreds of billions of dollars in loans for companies and small businesses, and $100 billion for hospitals. H.R. 748, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, unanimously passed the Senate late Wednesday evening (March 25) by a vote of ... Read More

In a statement submitted March 2 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the NGFA recommended several changes to the agency’s interim rule for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). Through ACEP, the NRCS pays conservation easement holders that purchase conservation easements from landowners. NRCS pays 50 to 75 percent of the market value of the land. This is in addition to federal tax incentives for conservation easement sellers. Under a conservation easement, the terms and conditions, such as which agricultural uses will be ... Read More

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is launching a new pilot program under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) that enables farmers in the Prairie Pothole region to receive payments for planting cover crops on their land for three to five years. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced Feb. 24 that the new Soil Health and Income Protection Program (SHIPP) pilot, authorized by the 2018 farm law, is available to producers in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. Signup for the pilot starts March 30 and ends Aug. 21. SHIPP, which will allow up to 50,000 acres ... Read More