USDA Initiative to Quantify Climate Benefits of CRP

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency announced an initiative to quantify the climate benefits of CRP contracts. The multi-year effort will enable USDA to better target CRP toward climate outcomes and improve existing models and conservation planning tools while supporting USDA’s goal of putting American agriculture and forestry at the center of climate-smart solutions to address climate change.

"CRP is a powerful tool for implementing voluntary, measurable conservation outcomes to mitigate the impacts of climate change,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. “Nearly 21 million acres are currently enrolled in the program that prevents the equivalent of more than 12 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.” He also says further quantifying program benefits will allow the agency to better target CRP to achieve continued climate wins across environmentally sensitive lands while strengthening their modeling and conservation planning resources for all producers.

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