2002 Kansas Report

Conservation Reserve Program

The CRP is the USDA’s single largest environmental improvement program and one of the most effective. CRP encourages farmers to cover highly erodible cropland or other environmentally sensitive acreage with vegetative cover such as tame or native grasses, wildlife plantings, trees, filterstrips, or riparian buffers.

Kansans received $102 million in payments for 2,658,620 cropland acres retired in the CRP. This year’s rental payments in Kansas will average $4,386 per farm and $36.67 per acre on 36,733 contracts on 23,441 farms.

For the CRP 24 signup for the Continuous CRP, producers enrolled 6,306 acres in 1,108 contracts for an average payment of $63.99 per acre or a total payment to producers of $403,417. (USDA figures)

Kansas Buffer Partnership

A Kansas Buffer Partnership provided $240,000 to 25 Kansas counties to promote the Kansas Water Quality Buffer Initiative. Producers who enroll buffers under the Continuous CRP receive an incentive payment, CRP rental payment, and a rental payment from the Governor’s Buffer Initiative.

The funding package for this partnership was coordinated by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) who provided an initial $150,000. In addition, KDWP  received a $50,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; $30,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and $10,000 from the National Wild Turkey Federation for a total of$240,000. The State Conservation Commission administers funding. Kansas NRCS provided office space, equipment, and technical assistance.

Conservation districts (CD) received $10,000 grants to hire a buffer coordinator to sell buffers. The following county CDs received funding: Allen, Barton, Bourbon, Coffey, Crawford, Dickinson, Finney, Ford, Geary, Gove, Harvey, Hodgeman, Leavenworth, Logan, Marshall, Miami, Neosho, Ness, Reno, Rice, Rush, Sedgwick, Shawnee, Stafford, and Thomas.

Watersheds

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