OXFORD – Farmers who want to retire cropland acres from production, yet enhance the land through conservation stewardship, will have the option to enroll their land in the Farm Service Agency’s Conservation Reserve Program.

Sign-up for the nation’s largest voluntary conservation program will begin Aug. 30 and run through Sept. 24.

CRP partners with farmers to protect fragile cropland. The program’s participants retire environmentally sensitive cropland acres from agricultural production and plant permanent vegetative covers of grass and trees. CRP plantings safeguard topsoil from erosion, provide food and habitat for wildlife ,and protect ground and surface water from runoff and sedimentation.

In exchange for entering into the 10- to 15-year contracts, participants receive annual rental and maintenance payments, and a payment of up to 50 percent of the cost of establishing conservation practices.

To be eligible for the program, a producer must have owned or operated the land for at least 12 months before the close of the CRP sign-up period. However, exceptions are allowed in certain cases.

Furthermore, the cropland must have been planted or considered planted for an agricultural commodity four of the six crop years between 1996 and 2001, and it must be capable of being planted for an agricultural commodity today.

In addition, cropland must be determined to be either “highly erodible” due to the steepness of the ground and its soil characteristics, or located in a national or state CRP conservation priority area.

Acres currently enrolled in the program and set to expire Sept. 30, 2004 or Sept. 30, 2005 are automatically eligible for program consideration. However, enrollment is not automatic.

More information on CRP and the general sign-up is available at the FSA office and on FSA’s Web site at www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/cepd/crpinfo.htm