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Farmers and producers around the nation are competing for more than $1 billion in cash payments for land enrolled in the conservation reserve program. The program, created in 1985, protects fragile farmland by paying selected farmers to stop growing crops on highly erodible land. The program is particularly tempting to some farmers during the current farm crisis.

AROUND THE NATION, THOUSANDS OF FARMERS are sitting through meetings such as this one in Barnesville. They are learning the rules the federal government has set down for the Conservation Reserve Program's (CRP) 18th sign-up. Under the CRP, farmers retire environmentally sensitive land for 10 to 15 years; in return, the U.S. Department of Agriculture pays rent and helps with the cost of establishing grassland or shrubs for wildlife on that land.

USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Dallas Smith says the program helps reduce soil erosion and expands and restores wildlife habitat while helping strengthen farm income.

Smith: The Secretary has pledged that he will use his full authority to encourage farmers to use the CRP to sustain agriculture and help farmers stay in agriculture production.

Smith: Our intent here is not to make the CRP more appealing then renting the land to someone to grow a crop on. But if the acreage is environmentally sensitive, we want to take it out of production and plant it to some type of soil preserve and crop or cover, if you will, so we will have land for food for future generations.

Peterson also introduced legislation to include cropland in northwestern Minnesota that has had repeated infestations of scab and vomitoxin, but it met with opposition from other state leaders and farmers in Minnesota.

Peterson: There were people in my district, primarily young farmers, that were not in favor of this because they thought it would drive up land prices and make it harder for them to get a hold of additional land or get started in farming.

Peterson: It was not designed to - at least not under the current structure - to deal with the crisis. It's an alternative, but most farmers want to farm - especially, you know, younger farmers. They are not interested in idling their land.

Schiefert: It's one of those programs where we've had the depressed economy with prices and the tough weather conditions this year. If there is some portion of the farm that is not conducive to farming, the more marginal soils, this would be a chance to not have to take the risk every year.

Carr: Some of the more marginal land that is not as good a cropland, that's when you've got low commodity prices, you can't make it work the way it is now.

Carr: It's basically good for the environment and it's a sure source of income, you know there is no risk. Eliminating risk is one of the main things.

At a recent legislative farm-crisis hearing in northwestern Minnesota, several landowners voiced frustrations about the CRP program. Wilkin County farmer Gerry Nordick says he's concerned at the acreage of good cropland enrolled by last spring's CRP sign-up. He says the average CRP payment in his county is about $60-an-acre, but with so many rules and regulations, Nordick says it's hard to get land approved for the program, and it's expensive.

Nordick: When we bid it, we bid it at $47-an-acre. Well under what the bid caps was, and then they came in and said we had to spend $116-an-acre on grass seed to get it sowed down. Well, why in the hell do we want to give up three years of payments just to pacify some Audubon Society member or somebody?

Schmitt: With the farm crisis and things the way the are, I see people going to their better land and saying, "I would kinda like that land, too." Well, that's going to pull the score down on your really highly erodible stuff when you start putting in some good land.