Excerpt
TITLE XII of the Food Security Act of 1985 provided for the establishment of a Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The rules and regulations for that program specify that the CRP acreage in a county must be no more than 25 percent of the county's cropland. Exceptions may be granted only where exceeding the 25 percent limit will not “adversely effect the local economy.”
The implication of this phrase is that counties can absorb the impact of a cropland loss up to 25 percent without adverse effects. While this may be true for some counties, others may experience considerable disruption in certain sectors of their local economies, particularly the agribusiness sector. Northern Missouri, an area where a large proportion of the eligible acreage already has been accepted into the CRP, represents a case in point.
Impacts on county economies
The annual CRP land rental income that farm owners and operators receive from the government will support local economies just as farmers' incomes from any other source will. Overall, local economies should be at least as well off financially, and perhaps better off, than without the CRP.
The direct and adverse impacts of this program will fall …
Footnotes
Gary Devino and Curtis Braschler are professors and Donald Van Dyne is a research associate in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia, 65211.
- Copyright 1988 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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