May 31, 2022

US amends farmland conservation agreement to mitigate food crisis

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said certain farmers will be allowed to plant crops on environmentally sensitive land that had been set aside for conservation in an effort to mitigate the global food crisis, Reuters reported.

The USDA said on its website that the offer is for farmers who are in the final year of their contract with the agency's Conservation Reserve Programme (CRP). Farmers are paid to fallow acres under 10- or 15-year contracts.

The USDA said it would have to approve applications from farmers to end their contract early voluntarily.

Aid organisations have warned that worldwide hunger will grow this year as a result of the conflict in Ukraine and a drought exacerbated by climate change that has driven global prices for cereals, cooking oils, gasoline, and fertiliser skyrocketing, resulting in demonstrations from Indonesia to Iran.

The agency's said participants accepted for this one-time, voluntary termination will not have to reimburse rental payments to assist reduce global food supply issues caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other circumstances.

If farmers are approved, they will be permitted to start preparing land for planting after the primary nesting season, and then hay, graze, and plant a fall-seeded crop before October 1, 2022.

The USDA said this flexibility may enable for better establishment of a winter wheat crop or better preparation of the land for spring planting for land in colder climates.

In reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US federal legislators have urged the Biden administration to enable farmers to sow preserved acres this spring.

Farm organisations urged Tom Vilsack, US Agriculture Secretary to enable farmers to plant on the almost 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of "prime farmland" enrolled in the CRP this spring.

-      Reuters