Conservation Reserve Program

The conservation reserve program (crp), run through the office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, was first established in the Farm Security Act of 1985. This voluntary program aims to promote sustained land and soil conservation efforts by private agricultural land holders by retiring highly erodible or environmentally sensitive farmland from active crop production for a period of 10–15 years. In exchange, landowners are provided annual rents. By retiring land from active crop cultivation, the program's objectives are to help stem the rate of soil loss and erosion, reduce nutrient runoff, leaching, and sedimentation into streams and rivers, improve water quality, and enhance wildlife habitat conditions by planting more appropriate grasses, trees or cover crops. As of 2005, nearly 424,000 farmers across ...