By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is getting ready to take applications from landowners who wish to extend their Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts.

Since the contract period, including any extensions, can only be for a maximum of 15 years, the only landowners eligible for an extension are those who already have a 10-year contract, according to Linda Rector, executive director of the Ann Arbor, Mich. FSA office.

There are other kinds of contracts agricultural landowners can apply for at any time, she said. These are called continuous CRP. The extension program doesn’t change any of that.

“Some of the contracts are eligible to re-enroll for three or five years,” she said.

Rector said the FSA isn’t doing a general re-enrollment for CRP contracts right now, but “we’re trying to keep some of these contracts in.” Landowners will be sent a letter notifying them of the opportunity early this month and, if they are interested, may apply through their local FSA office.

“We use an environmental benefit index score, an erodibility index (EI)” Rector said.

“We’re looking at EIs of 15 or greater, so it has to be pretty erodible.”

She also stated if a landowner wishes to, they can apply to have only part of their land re-enrolled, not necessarily all of it. Gail Peas, a conservation program specialist with the Indiana FSA, said there is not enough land available for CRP to do a general re-enrollment.

“Only the top 30 percent in the EI score are eligible for an extension,” she said. “If we held a general signup right now, we would be looking at a small percentage of acceptance. We are close to our statutory limit on CRP nationally.”

Under the old farm bill 39 million acres of land were available for enrollment in the CRP. Under the new farm bill, that figure is 32 million acres.

“I’m sure it’s just budgetary,” Peas said.

There is no direct relationship be-tween the CRP and other land set-aside programs, in particular some climate change initiatives that already exist or are being proposed, which also pay farmers not to farm. But, Rector said, some of the practices that would make land eligible for CRP contracts would also make it eligible for carbon credit trading.

Michigan is one state out of several that participates in a carbon credit trading program through the Chicago Climate Exchange, for example.

The FSA is looking to extend 1.5 million acres out of a total of 3.9 million acres, in which contracts are set to expire Sept. 30. The FSA will take applications for CRP extensions May 18-June 30.