Summary of the 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act

Highlights of individual programs in the 2002 farm bill, as identified by House and Senate conferees:

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

• Reauthorized through 2007
• Increases enrollment cap from 36.4 million acres to 39.2 million acres
• Permits harvesting of biomass for energy on CRP acreage with a reduction in rental rate
• Retains priority areas
• Expands wetlands pilot (previously restricted to upper Midwest states) to 1 million acres with all states eligible
• Makes land on which surface or groundwater is conserved eligible for enrollment
• Makes land currently enrolled in the CRP eligible for re-enrollment
• Requires the Secretary to conduct a rulemaking to achieve a balance of conservation interests in soil erosion, water quality and wildlife habitat in determining the acceptability of contract offers.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

• o Reauthorized through 2007
• Program level is phased up from $200 million annually to reach $1.3 billion annually, an increase of more than six- fold, with livestock producers receiving 60 percent of annual funding, and crop producers receiving the other 40 percent.
• The water conservation program provides a total of $600 million for cost-share incentives and assistance for efforts to conserve ground and surface water. Of this amount, $50 million is reserved specifically to assist producers in the Klamath Basin.
• Provides explicit authority for the Secretary to implement an incentives payment program for producers of annual and perennial crops, such as tree nuts or fruits
• Allows EQIP contracts to be from 1 to 10 years in length with producers receiving payment the same year in which they sign the contract
• Total payments for an individual or entity may not exceed, in the aggregate, $450,000 for all contracts entered into during the period of fiscal years 2002 through 2007, regardless of the number of contracts.

Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP)

• Reauthorized through 2007
• Increases enrollment cap from a total of 1,075,000 million acres to 2.275 million acres

Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)

• Reauthorized through 2007
• The new funding total of $700 million is greater than a 10-fold increase over the amount committed to the program since the last farm bill.

Farmland Protection Program (FPP)

• Reauthorized through 2007
• The new funding total of $985 million is nearly a 20- fold increase over the amount committed to this program since the last farm bill.
• Makes agricultural land that contains historic or archeological resources eligible.

Grassland Reserve Program

• Provides $254 million in total funding for this new program
• Provides 1 million acres to native grass and 1 million acres devoted to restored grasslands
• Divided 40/60 between agreements of 10, 15, or 20 years and agreements and easements for 30 years and permanent easements.

Small Watershed Dam Restoration:

This program provides $275 million in new-program funding for the rehabilitation of aging small watershed impoundments that have been constructed over the past 50 years.

Conservation Security Program:

This program provides $2 billion for this new national incentive payment program that rewards producers for maintaining and increasing farm and ranch stewardship practices.

Underserved States:

This program was started in the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 and is continued with a total funding level of $50 million.

Desert Terminal Lakes:

This program provides $200 million in new-program funding to help conserve desert terminal lakes. These funds cannot be used for the purchase or lease of water rights.

Protection of Private Information:

This program provides producers participating in conservation programs with protection against the release of confidential information by the agency.