House Passes Extension Of Crp Program

A one-year extension of a land conservation program for winter wheat regions passed the House on Tuesday, but Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said that it could compound wheat supply problems.

Glickman said in a letter to House sponsors that extension of the Conservation Reserve Program would idle millions of acres just as this year’s wheat crop is suffering from freezes and floods around the country.

The extension “precludes millions of acres of farmland from returning to production next year to help rebuild this country’s very low wheat stocks,” Glickman said.

But the House approved the legislation, 325-90. It affects wheat, barley and oats producers in states where crops are planted in the fall.

Farmers would be able to keep acreage idle under the Conservation Reserve Program for another year, even if the acreage was later rejected by the Agriculture Department. This would give farmers time to prepare the ground, now covered with trees or grass, for crop planting in fall 1998.