This Policy Report column was first published by Nebraska Farmer on March 10, 2026, and is excerpted here with permission.
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Brad Lubben explains how CRP enrollment has changed over time and what the next farm bill could mean for the program’s future. (Find this episode on your favorite platform here).
At a Glance
- The upcoming farm bill debate will determine the direction of the Conservation Reserve Program and its enrollment capacity.
- Lawmakers will decide whether to adjust the national CRP acreage cap, which controls how much land can be enrolled.
- Rental payment levels and incentive structures will influence whether landowners choose conservation over crop production.
- Changes to CRP policy could affect land use decisions, conservation outcomes and farm revenue opportunities.
In February, USDA announced the newest round of sign-ups for the Conservation Reserve Program, after authority was extended in late 2025 farm bill legislation.
The continuous CRP sign-up was opened through March 20, and the general CRP sign-up was set for March 9 to April 17. The grassland CRP sign-up was set to be announced at a later date.
The sign-ups for the three different components of CRP are all part of an evolving program and policy setting since its creation in the 1985 Farm Bill. In the mid-1980s, amid farm economy challenges, low commodity prices and excess production, the proposed CRP offered both economic and environmental benefits.
The program paid producers annual rent, as well as some cost-share assistance, to take highly erodible cropland out of production and establish and maintain permanent cover on the land. Environmental and conservation groups cheered the program for its ability to reduce soil erosion (wind and water), improve air and water quality, protect soil productivity, and increase wildlife habitat.
Farm and commodity groups also supported the program as a way to reduce excess production and increase commodity prices and farm income. The combined coalition of support helped get the program into the 1985 Farm Bill.
How CRP evolved
Initially, CRP was run only as what is now known as the general CRP. Landowners submitted bids to enroll whole fields into the program during regular sign-up periods, and bids were competitively selected for participation.
Enrolled acres were generally accepted for 10-year contracts and received an annual rental payment for establishing and maintaining approved cover and practices. The fundamental goal of the program was to retire eligible cropland from production and place it into a conservation use, although some limited haying and grazing was allowed under emergency conditions such as drought or flooding.
The program grew quickly toward an initial target of 40 million to 45 million acres. It was reauthorized in successive farm bills with expanded eligible lands and practices, along with some adjustments to the enrollment cap.
The 1996 Farm Bill established the continuous CRP component to expand eligible practices and targeted lands such as filter strips and riparian buffers. This part of the CRP was open to enrollment continuously (thus the name) on a noncompetitive basis.
Landowners could enroll land in the continuous CRP at up to the maximum rental rate established for different soil classes in each county. The continuous provisions shifted some of the focus of the CRP from retiring full fields from production for conservation purposes to enrolling partial fields to address specific environmental goals.
CRP enrollment peaked at more than 36 million acres in 2007 before beginning a steady decline through 2021. Crop economics, changing provisions and successive farm bills all impacted the size and scope of the program.
In the early 2000s, there were enough concerns about the number of acres in CRP set for expiration amid struggling commodity prices that USDA offered a re-enrollment and extension opportunity for acres to remain in the program.
Almost as soon as those offers were accepted, crop economic prospects changed with biofuel and demand growth, and the questions changed to how quickly some CRP land could be taken out of the program and returned to production.
As enrollment steadily declined for more than a decade, the 2008 Farm Bill and 2014 Farm Bill both reduced the enrollment cap for CRP, not specifically to force the decline, but to capture the budget savings of having fewer acres enrolled in the program than authorized.
A new kind of CRP
The 2018 Farm Bill reversed the trend with a gradual increase in the enrollment cap as interest grew, particularly in the grassland CRP. The grassland CRP was first authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill after previous incentives and programs (the Grassland Reserve Program) had run their course.
As sign-up started for this component in late 2015, the goal was to enroll and protect grasslands while they remain in grazing use. The payment rates do not reflect rental rates. per se, but instead provide incentives to encourage and support conservation practices and benefits such as biodiversity or wildlife habitat even as the land remains in agricultural production.
The grasslands component reflects the greatest shift in CRP over time. From a program largely designed to retire land from production for both environmental and economic purposes, CRP has shifted in part to a working lands program designed to support conservation practices and environmental benefits on land that remains in agricultural production.
