Market News & Headlines >> Groups Call for Planting on CRP Acres

Farm groups are urging USDA to allow farmers to plant on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres, to help  make up for disruptions in the supply of Ukrainian corn, wheat and sunflower oil amid Russia's invasion of the country.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Wednesday, seven agriculture lobbying groups representing U.S. farmers, feed producers, grain exporters, millers, bakers and oilseed processors asked USDA to provide flexibility to farmers to plant crops on more than 4 million acres of "prime farmland" currently enrolled in the Farm Service Agency's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) without penalty.

"It remains unclear whether Ukrainian farmers will be able to safely plant crops this spring," the letter said. "Time is of the essence. The planting window in the United States has already opened."

The letter, signed by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Grain and Feed Association and others, echoes a March 8 request by U.S. Senator John Boozman of Arkansas, as well as calls from agriculture economists.

Some farmers are skeptical about the approach as CRP acres are often set aside because they are difficult to farm, have poor soil, or are environmentally sensitive. "In my area, everything that is farmable is farmed. We have very little CRP in my neck of the woods. It's only in places you don’t want to farm," Kevin Scott, a corn and soybean farmer in southeastern South Dakota told Reuters News Service.

As of January, a total of 22.1 million acres were enrolled in the CRP. The CRP pays farmers to leave land fallow for 10 to 15 years.