UPDATE: Since this blog was posted on April 3, USDA has extended the CRP sign up deadline by one week to Friday, April 13.

The fiscal year (FY) 2012 general sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) ends on Friday, April 6.  You can read our blog post from late January for more information about the general sign up.

During the general sign up, producers can offer land for enrollment only until April 6.  Alternatively, the CRP also has a continuous signup provision, the CCRP (sometimes referred to as the CRP buffer initiative), which provides payments to farmers to establish riparian buffers, grass waterways, contour grass strips, and other specific partial field conservation practices on land in agricultural production.  Farmers and landowners may enroll land on which those partial field practices will be adopted at any time, hence the term “continuous” sign-up.

USDA recently announced two new initiatives as part of CCRP – a highly erodible cropland initiative and an initiative to restore wetlands, grassland, and wildlife.

To enroll through either the general or continuous sign up process, producers should contact their local FSA office.