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By TIM UNRUH

Salina Journal

A federal farm program that has injected millions of dollars into the pockets of Kansas landowners -- but one that a farm official says has contributed to the depopulation of rural Kansas -- is geared for a four-week sign-up period beginning next month.

The Conservation Reserve Program, which was first authorized by the 1985 Farm Bill, was designed to take highly erodible land out of production to protect soil and other natural resources.

CRP is billed as "one of the most successful programs in the history of the USDA," said Adrian Polansky, a Belleville farmer and executive director of the agriculture department's Farm Service Agency state office in Manhattan.

But he admits that not all of the results have been good for Kansas.

"Frankly speaking, there are pluses and there are some minuses, but the benefits from CRP that we have seen far outweigh the minuses, or those that are less than positive," Polansky said.

The upside, Polansky said, is CRP's benefits to soil erosion issues, water quality and improved wildlife habitat, such as that for the lesser prairie chicken in western Kansas.

Killing rural Kansas

Steve Baccus, a Minneapolis-area farmer and president of the Kansas Farm Bureau, would lean more toward the program's negatives. The initial idea to protect fragile soils was a good idea, but then some land "that wasn't that sensitive" was put under contract.

He said CRP's bad side is evident.

"If you go out to western Kansas, there are major portions of rural counties that are no longer farmed, and a lot of communities have dried up," Baccus said. "It's done a lot of damage to western Kansas."

He said CRP has contributed to the "depopulation" of Kansas and played a role in school consolidations.

"You had people who took their land out of production, put it to grass, and took their payments and headed south," Baccus said. "You have young farmers who would like to expand their operations, and they can't get to (CRP acres)."

2.5 million acres

More than 2.5 million acres of Kansas land are enrolled in the program, producing nearly $102 million in annual rent; two-thirds of those payments go to owners of land in the western one-third of the state.

On Sept. 30, the contracts for 517,708 of those acres -- representing nearly $21 million in annual payments -- are set to expire, Polansky said.

Contracts run for 10 to 15 years, according to a USDA release, and "probably a large percentage" of those expiring acres will roll into new contracts, he said.

Nationwide, 30 million acres are enrolled in CRP, and contracts on roughly 6.5 million acres are nearing expiration.

Used on marginal land

Landowners who successfully bid for CRP plant native grasses on their land, which increases wildlife habitat and reduces soil and water erosion.

"A lot of CRP in western Kansas is on marginal acres. They went through a dry period there, and we haven't seen anything like the Dust Bowl with the dust clouds," he said. "That, in part, is due to CRP and better (farming) methodology."

Wildlife improvements help hunting, which produces "opportunities for income for those types of activities."

Technology, depopulation

As for depopulation mentioned by Baccus, Polansky said taking land out of production is only part of the problem. Technology pushed some human labor out but helped farmers be more productive per acre, lowered the cost of raising crops, and the cost of food.

"It then allows consumers to have more of their paycheck available to buy computers and cell phones," Polansky said. "But that efficiency has undeniably had an impact on the number of people in rural communities."

No program is great for everyone, he said.

"There's no perfect solution to anything, and there are no simple answers to complex problems," Polansky said.

Keeps carbon in the land

CRP contracts are ranked according to an Environmental Benefits Index, the USDA release reads.

The USDA release lists a number of benefits:

* CRP has restored more than 2 million acres of wetlands and 2 million acres of riparian buffers.

* Each year, CRP keeps more than 600 million pounds of nitrogen and more than 100 million pounds of phosphorous from flowing into our nation's streams, rivers, and lakes.

* CRP provides $1.8 billion annually to landowners -- dollars that make their way into local economies, supporting small businesses and creating jobs.

* CRP is the largest private-lands carbon sequestration program in the country. By placing vulnerable cropland into conservation, CRP sequesters carbon in plants and soil ... In 2010, CRP resulted in carbon sequestration equal to taking almost 10 million cars off the road.

-- Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by email at tunruh@salina.com.

WHAT: Conservation Reserve Program sign-up

WHEN: March 12 through April 6

INFORMATION: Call or stop by a Farm Service Agency office -- in Salina, 1410 E. Iron, 825-8269 -- or visit fsa.usda.gov.

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