Is it Time to Repurpose CRP?
Dr. Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University, via a FarmDoc Daily article, writes: “A Carbon Capture CRP" initially focused on grasslands might offer more potential to capture carbon than the much debated, currently unproven carbon markets for the 318 million acres of principal crops in the U.S.”
Related story: CRP Contract Termination to Offset Global Food Crisis Gains USDA's Approval
With the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, there will be more land, 9.2 million acres, in the Grasslands CRP, a working lands program, than in other CRP components, he said. The so-called Continuous CRP, which helps landowners install practices such as windbreaks and filter strips on small pieces of land, would be as big as the General CRP, at about 8.2 million acres apiece.
Zulauf’s CRP suggestion
“This transformation, plus advances in GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and farm tillage as well as strong returns to producing crops since 2007, suggest it is time to merge General CRP and Continuous CRP into a Site Specific CRP,” said Zulauf. “Similar to Continuous CRP, Site Specific CRP would emphasize identification of sites in a field with the highest benefit-cost ratio for improving environmental quality while keeping the rest of the field in farm production.”
