The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition recently published this helpful article, WAYS TO IMPROVE LAND-LINKING THROUGH THE TRANSITION INCENTIVES PROGRAM. This program works to "encourage landowners to transition CRP farmland to beginning, socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers and ranchers. Millions of acres are set to expire from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) over the coming years, creating a unique opportunity to create access to valuable land for historically underserved farmers and ranchers." 

The article describes how the Conservation Reserve Program -- Transition Incentives Program (CRP-TIP) works, the importance of outreach to landowners, recommendations for cross-agency connections, ideas for the 2023 Farm Bill, and improvements and next steps:

"Farmers have many options of what to do with their expiring CRP acres of farmland that have been set-aside from production for environmental benefits for the past 10 to 15 years. One of the options that farmers can choose is to participate in CRP-TIP and help create an opportunity for the next generation of farmers to get started. In this post, we have covered many recommendations that can improve both current implementation of CRP-TIP and the program long-term. NSAC, along with our members, will continue to advocate for more funding and policy improvements for CRP-TIP to encourage conservation activities on expiring CRP land, while simultaneously supporting the next generation of farmers and ranchers."

Visit this link to learn more about the Conservation Reserve Program.

Ideas for the 2023 Farm Bill include:

• Provide mini grants to farmers for succession planning
• Extend CRP-TIP payments to five years
• Include CRP-TIP in the CRP baseline to ensure funding continues
• Exclude a portion of the gains from the sale of land through CRP-TIP from capital gains tax