Farmers and landowners have less than one week remaining to sign-up for the Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CCRP), a federal conservation program that pays farmers to install partial field conservation practices, primarily conservation buffers or wildlife habitat. Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) ended a nearly yearlong freeze on CCRP and reopened program enrollment. Conservation and farm groups nationwide, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) celebrated the reopening of the program and welcomed the expansion of conservation opportunities for producers and landowners nationwide.

The CCRP signup period ends on Friday, August 17, 2018. NSAC encourages interested producers looking to enroll or reenroll to apply at their local FSA offices ASAP.

This year’s signup is limited to specific conservation practices, including grassed waterways, filter strips, riparian buffers, wetland restoration, and more. These CCRP practices can help producers and landowners to dramatically improve water quality and wildlife habitats on their lands.

While the reopening of CCRP is a major step forward, NSAC will continue to urge USDA to make additional improvements to future signups, including allowing for in-field buffer practices and providing incentive payments, neither of which are available as part of the current sign up.

More details on this signup opportunity are available in our original June 2018 announcement of the reopening of CCRP, linked here.