Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a part of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) the country's largest private-land conservation program. Administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), CREP targets specific State or nationally significant conservation concerns, and federal funds are supplemented with non-federal funds to address those concerns.

In exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from production and establishing permanent resource conserving plant species, farmers and ranchers are paid an annual rental rate along with other federal and non-federal incentives as applicable per each CREP agreement. Participation is voluntary, and the contract period is typically 10-15 years.

A producer must have owned or operated the land for at least 12 months prior to submitting the offer for continuous or 12 months before the close of general or grasslands signup, unless:

• The new owner acquired the land due to the previous owner’s death;

• The ownership change occurred due to foreclosure where the owner exercised a timely right of redemption in accordance with state law or;

• The circumstances of the acquisition present adequate assurance to FSA that the new owner did not acquire the land for the purpose of placing it in CREP or CRP.

Your state must have a CREP agreement in place with FSA. If there is an agreement, land can be enrolled in CREP on a continuous basis provided it meets the eligibility requirements for the program. Any land that meets basic CRP eligibility requirements, plus the additional requirements for a specific CREP project, is automatically eligible for enrollment. Most additional CREP land eligibility requirements apply to the location and characteristics of the land to be enrolled. All enrollment offers are processed through your local FSA office.

• Fact sheets for each state program can be found on the Main Page

• CREP Overview PDF