California Ag TODAY: USDA PROGRAM PAYMENTS

USDA has begun distributing Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) annual rental payments to participants across the country, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced TODAY.

USDA will also distribute 2013 direct payments and 2012 Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program payments beginning Oct. 24. Payments were originally to be issued earlier in the month, but were delayed due to the lapse in Federal funding.

“Farmers, ranchers and rural landowners across the country count on USDA programs and the payment delays due to the shutdown were an unnecessary burden,” Vilsack said. USDA will schedule these payments without further delay. “Farm Service Agency staff have worked hard to get this assistance out the door as quickly as possible,” he added.

California producers hold a total of 508 CRP conservation contracts for their farmland and will receive an average of $35.11 per acre for their habitat and environmental protection measures. Statewide, California producers will receive $4,421,800 in conservation payments for 125,934 acres.

U.S. producers will paid for nearly 700,000 CRP contracts on 390,000 farms covering 26 to 31 million acres, making this FSA voluntary program the largest public-private partnership for conservation and wildlife habitat in the nation. Specifically, the program helps ag producers safeguard environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and provide millions of acres of habitat for game and non-game wildlife species, while improving water quality.

USDA also issues non-rental CRP payments throughout the year. These payments for certain contracts include a 50 percent expense reimbursement for establishing and managing cover as well as incentive payments for enrolling eligible high priority conservation practices. Nationally, CRP reduced runoff and leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus into waterways by an estimated 605 million pounds and 121 million pounds, respectively, in 2012, and soil erosion reductions totaling 308 million tons in 2012.

The 2013 DCP and ACRE programs are issuing direct payments to the more than 1.7 million farms and ranches across the nation enrolled in the Farm Service Agency’s programs. Producers with base acres of certain commodities are eligible for DCP payments. These commodity stabilization programs form a safety net for farm and ranches to deal with the rise and fall of both market prices and production costs and to stabilize production in key crops in the U.S.