1410.42—Annual rental payments.
(a)
Subject to the availability of funds, annual rental payments shall be made in such amount and in accordance with such time schedule as may be agreed upon and specified in the CRP contract.
(b)
Annual rental payments, except for land accepted that was formerly enrolled under the WBP, include a payment based on a weighted average soil rental rate or marginal pastureland rental rate, as appropriate, and an incentive payment as a portion of the annual payment of certain practices, as determined by the Deputy Administrator. Payments for land accepted that was formerly enrolled under the WBP are limited to annual rental payments received under the WBP.
(c)
The annual rental payment shall be divided among the participants on a single contract as agreed to in such contract.
(d)
The maximum amount of rental payments that a person or legal entity may receive, directly or indirectly, under CRP for any fiscal year must not exceed $50,000. The regulations in part 1400 of this chapter will be applicable for determining whether the limit has been exceeded.
(e)
In the case of a contract succession, annual rental payments shall be divided between the predecessor and the successor participants as agreed to among the participants and approved by CCC. If there is no agreement among the participants, annual rental payments shall be divided in such manner deemed appropriate by the Deputy Administrator and such distribution may be prorated based on the actual days of ownership of the property by each party.
(f)
CCC shall, when appropriate, prepare a schedule for each county that shows the maximum soil rental rate CCC may pay which may be supplemented to reflect special contract requirements. As determined by the Deputy Administrator, such schedule will be calculated based on the relative productivity of soils within the county using NRCS data and local FSA average cash rental estimates. The schedule will be available in the local FSA office and, as determined by the Deputy Administrator, shall indicate, when appropriate, that:
(1)
Offers of contracts by producers who request rental payments greater than the schedule for their soil(s) will be rejected;
(2)
Offers of contracts submitted under continuous signup authorized at § 1410.30 may be accepted without further evaluation when the requested rental rate is less than or equal to the calculated weighted soil rental rate, based on the three predominant soils listed; and
(3)
Otherwise qualifying offers shall be ranked competitively based on factors established under § 1410.31 of this part in order to provide the most cost-effective environmental benefits, as determined by the Deputy Administrator.
(g)
Additional financial incentives may be provided to producers who offer contracts expected to provide especially high environmental benefits, as determined by the Deputy Administrator.