Several farm groups are pressuring the USDA to allow farmers to plant on Conservation Reserve Program acres.
The groups say the move would help to fill the likely lack of corn, wheat, and sunflower oil coming from Ukraine because of the Russian invasion.
Yahoo News says seven agriculture lobbying organizations fired off a letter to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack this week asking the USDA for flexibility for farmers to plant crops on more than four million acres of “prime farmland” that’s currently enrolled in the Farm Service Agency’s CRP without penalty.
“It remains to be seen if Ukraine’s farmers will be able to safely plant crops,” the letter says. “Time is of the essence. The planting window in the United States is already open.”
The letter was signed by the American Farm Bureau, the National Grain and Feed Association, and several other groups. If the acres get planted, they could yield another 18.7 million tons of grain.