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Abstract
Hedonic price modeling of 1,951
non-pasture agricultural land sales
across North Dakota indicates that
land enrolled in the Conservation
Reserve Program (CRP) sold for 14
percent less than otherwise similar
cropland over the 2000 to 2004
time period. This price discount is
assumed to result from the
increasing opportunity costs
associated with maintaining
agricultural land in conservation,
particularly in light of the steadily
increasing commodity prices over
the study period. Similar findings
have recently been reported in the
adjacent state of Minnesota. These
multi-state results explain why many
landowners nationwide are actively
lobbying the USDA to allow
voluntary opt-outs of remaining CRP
contracts. This may also indicate
the need to either shorten the length
of future CRP contracts and/or to
have CRP payment values tied to
commodity and/or land price
indices. Continued research on this
topic would be facilitated and
improved with the inclusion of
parcel-specific (GIS based) CRP
enrollment data.