USDA plans to extend Conservation Reserve Program signup

WASHINGTON, April 3 – Anyone interested in participating in the 43^rd general signup of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) will have another week to do so.

Enrollment was originally planned to end this Friday, April 6, but USDA plans to extend registration until April 13^th.

There’s been a lot of demand for enrollment and re-enrollment of acres in this particular program,” explained Farm Service Agency Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs Juan Garcia in an interview with Agri-Pulse today. “We’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the demand thus far for the program and we wanted to give producers every chance to take advantage of this general sign up.”

CRP contracts covering about 6.5 million acres are set to expire this year and Garcia said a “large portion of those acres” are being re-enrolled. However, he said he was not yet at liberty to provide the exact acreage numbers or the detail participation by state.

North Dakota has the largest number of acres covered by expiring CRP contracts with year, with slightly over 838,000 acres eligible to go back into production. And USDA reported last week that North Dakota growers plan to increase corn, soybean and wheat planted acres this year. 

But Garcia said there is still interest in re-enrolling CRP acres in North Dakota.

For the top ten states in terms of CRP acres expiring in 2012, see the chart below.

Garcia said FSA is also working on the 2012 sign-up for the Direct and Counter-Cyclical Payment (DCP) program, with a June 1 deadline. In addition to DCP, other FSA programs also have enrollment deadlines approaching, including:

·         Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program: Check with the FSA service center for dates;

·         GRAZE-OUT – March 31 for calendar year 2011 crops;

·         Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) General Sign-up 43 – April 6;

·         Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) – June 1;

·         Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payment Program (SURE) – June 1, 2012 for crop year 2010;

·         2011 ACRE Production Evidence – July 15

Garcia also wants to warn producers about fraudulent letters that have been circulating; requesting personal and financial information from someone listed as Frank Rutenberg, USDA senior procurement officer.

“We want to make sure that producers understand that these letters are false and in no case should anyone receiving this letter respond with any personal or financial information that’s requested,” he added.

USDA is in the process of contacting some growers about their adjusted gross income and eligibility for farm program enrollment, but Garcia says those letters contain the phone numbers of each respective state office.

If in doubt, he recommended producers contact their state offices about the validity of the letter.

For more information on FSA programs, go to: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=fsahome&subject=landing&topic=landing

#30

For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com