Farm Programs

Conservation Reserve Program Could Be Less Costly and More Effective Gao ID: RCED-90-13 November 15, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

GAO noted that: (1) 6 percent of about 28 million CRP-enrolled acres were planted in trees, making CRP one of the largest public tree-planting programs, despite falling short of the USDA 12.5-percent goal; (2) USDA was not targeting the highest erodible land first, because it relaxed CRP eligibility criteria to attain its tree-planting goal; (3) USDA failed to address water quality issues and favored wind-caused erosion over water-caused erosion, although water erosion was the greater problem; (4) CRP outlays will total over $22 billion by 1999; (5) USDA unnecessarily increased CRP costs to achieve its tree-planting goal by employing a noncompetitive bid system, using excessive tree initiatives, and paying inflated rental rates; (6) USDA efforts to implement congressional rental rate limits were inadequate, because management did not establish internal controls; and (7) legislative county-enrollment restrictions may increase program costs, while limiting enrollment of highly erodible acreage.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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