Subcommittee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) convened the hearing as a review of the Conservation Reserve Program.
CRP, the Conservation Reserve Program, was created in the 1985 Farm Bill to reduce erosion on 40 to 45 million acres of cropland.
Landowners sign contracts agreeing to keep retired lands in approved conserving uses for 10-15 years. In exchange, the landowner receives an annual rental payment, cost-share payments to establish permanent vegetative cover and technical assistance.
More than 28 million acres of CRP contract lands are scheduled to expire between 2007
and 2010. Sixteen million of these will expire in 2007 alone, coinciding with the
scheduled statutory reauthorization of the farm bill.
Audio replay of the one-and a half-hour hearing.