>>25048045
How much will farmers be paid, not to farm, in the pending Farm Bill?
Based on available information, the Agricultural Act of 2026 (the pending Farm Bill) has advanced through the Senate Agriculture Committee as of September 2026.
However, specific updated payment rates per acre for farmers to remove land from production are not yet finalized or widely published in the current public summaries.
Payments for "not farming" are primarily handled through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a voluntary program where the government pays farmers to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that improve wildlife habitat and water quality.
While the exact rates for the 2026 Act are pending, these programs typically determine payments based on:
Rental Payments: Annual payments based on the land's rental value.
Cost-Share: Financial assistance to cover the cost of establishing the conservation practices.
Land Eligibility: The environmental benefit the land provides (e.g., soil erosion risk).
The pending legislation aims to update these conservation programs to better impact wildlife habitat and hunting and fishing access.
For the most current specific rates for your region, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides official enrollment and payment data.
If you mean the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)—the program commonly described as paying farmers “not to farm”—the pending Farm Bill does not set one nationwide payment.
The Senate draft would:
Reauthorize CRP through 2031.
Recalculate rental rates to favor marginal land over highly productive cropland.
Raise the annual CRP payment limit from the current limit to $125,000 per participant or entity. That is a ceiling, not a guaranteed payment.
Actual payments are calculated per acre using county rental values and soil productivity. Current national averages are roughly:
General CRP: $57 per acre per year
Continuous CRP: $148 per acre per year
Grasslands CRP: nearly $16 per acre per year
Rates vary enormously by location—for example, recent averages ranged from under $16 per acre in Wyoming to about $260 in Iowa for general CRP.
So, a farmer enrolling 500 acres at the national general-CRP average would receive approximately $28,500 per year, plus any applicable incentives and cost-sharing—not $125,000 automatically.
The Senate committee advanced its bill on September 16, 2026, but it remains pending; the House and Senate versions still must be reconciled and enacted.
https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2026/06/senate-agriculture-committee-releases-draft-text-for-2026-farm-bill
https://www.fb.org/intel/markets/reviewing-trends-in-conservation-reserve-program-enrollment
https://www.trcp.org/2026/09/16/new-farm-bill-advances-in-senate-committee-key-impacts-for-hunters-anglers/
https://www.trcp.org/
https://www.fsa.usda.gov/