U.S. Department of Agriculture Re-Opens General and Continuous Enrollment for Conservation Reserve Program
May 15, 2025
By:
John P. Talbot, Jordan P. Wimpy
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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On September 25, 2024, USDA’s Acting Deputy Administrator of Farm Programs issued a Notice to all Farm Service Agency (FSA) State and County Offices, directing them to cease processing and/or approving offers of enrollment or re-enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) after September 30, 2024. This was due to expiration of the 2023 extension of the 2018 Farm Bill. We wrote about the Acting Deputy Administrator’s Notice HERE.
The subsequent American Relief Act, 2025 [Pub. L. 118-158] extended the 2018 Farm Bill until September 30, 2025. This included CRP authority, but CRP signup remained in suspense until now.
As of May 12, 2025, the Acting Deputy Administrator issued a Notice to all State and County Offices, authorizing them to begin processing CRP offers again. The first batching period for continuous offers will end on June 6, a short window. Offers after this date may be held pending acreage availability and further batching and acceptance.
CRP was originally authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, it is one of the largest and most successful programs in the Farm Bill’s conservation title and is reaching its 27-million-acre statutory cap.
A copy of the Acting Deputy Administrator’s Notice authorizing enrollment can be found HERE, and a USDA-FSA Fact Sheet on CRP can be found HERE.
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