I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the 2008 farm bill, and how there’s now an income cap on farmers who can receive payments through the Conservation Reserve Program. Critics of the program deride it as paying farmers not to farm, but the ecologically minded farmers out there know that the program simply provides an incentive to take land which is environmentally fragile out of production. CRP land protects soil and groundwater and provides wildlife refuge that helps keep rural areas ecologically healthy – and even economically productive, since CRP land and the wildlife it attracts makes things like hunting leases more attractive.

Unfortunately it looks like a lot of farmers may be making the decision to pull their acreage out of the CRP. The rates paid for CRP haven’t adjusted much over the years, and even though the government paid $1.7 billion in 2005, the cash rents on land are so high now that some farmers report they could be earning twice as much on their CRP land. 3.8 million acres will be up for renewal next year, and 4.4 million acres in 2010. Some farmers will pull their land out because they won’t be eligible any longer under the new income cap provisions of the 2008 farm bill; others because the economics simply don’t make sense for them anymore. A third group may pull out because the program has become less flexible; for years, farmers have been able to participate in CRP but request occasional waivers from the Department of Agriculture to use the acreage for animal feed. A recent lawsuit by the National Wildlife Federation put a stop to that, and so USDA’s hands are tied.

In addition to existing participants opting out, fewer new farmers may be opting in. Enrollments declined 21 percent from 2006 to 2007, with many farmers stating that the subsidies for ethanol production just made it impossible for them to leave the land out of production. Overall, it’s a shame – this is a good program that has improved the land quality of the US farming base, and if it falls apart because of conflicting subsidies and ill-advised restrictions, we’re all going to be worse off for it.