Bill Would Increase
CRP Acres, Cut Time

WASHINGTON —(AP)— Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts plans to propose adding nearly 10 million acres to the Conservation Reserve Program and wants to allow the idling of fragile farmland for five years rather than the current decade.

The 14 year-old CRP program is designed to remove highly erodible land from production, replacing crops with native grasses that filter water and provide a wildlife habitat.

Roberts said expanding CRP is a good way to manage the nation's oversupply of grain and depressed crop prices. He and Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., plan to introduce legislation moving the cap on the number of protected acres from 36 million to 45 million.

The number of acres actually in the program is about 30.5 million.

Farmers support the program because the government pays them to protect fragile soil from prairie gusts. Hunters and environmentalists also back the CRP.

The program costs about $1.8 billion a year.