The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $10 million in a new initiative to sample, measure and monitor soil carbon on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres to better quantify the climate outcomes of the program. The initiative will begin implementation in fall 2021 with three partners who will conduct soil carbon sampling on three categories of CRP practice types: perennial grasses, trees and wetlands.

Farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin—including parts of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana—can earn money through a phosphorus load reduction pilot program. The “Phosphorus Load-Reduction Stimulation Program” (PLUS-UP) program, coordinated by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), will pay farmers in the project area $5 to $10 per acre in 2022 to reduce P loads using practices such as no-till or cover crops.