Add USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) annual rental payments

[stuckvgn]

Summary

PolicyEngine currently models USDA food assistance programs (SNAP, WIC, School Meals, CSFP, FDPIR) but no USDA farm programs. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is one of the largest USDA conservation programs, paying ~$1.8B/year in annual rental payments to ~700,000 contracts covering ~22M acres. Adding CRP would expand PolicyEngine's coverage of government transfers to rural households.

Why CRP is a natural fit

• Entity model: CRP payments go directly to individual landowners/operators — maps cleanly to the Person entity
• Tax integration: CRP rental payments are already classified as self-employment income by the IRS (Schedule F or Schedule SE), so they interact with existing tax variables
• Existing variables: farm_income, farm_operations_income, farm_rent_income, and is_farmer_fisher already establish farm/agriculture as in-scope
• Simple formula: payment = soil_rental_rate × enrolled_acres × proration_factor + cost_share_payment
• Published parameters: USDA publishes county-level soil rental rates, proration factors are fixed (85% general signup, 90% continuous)

Proposed implementation

New input variables

• crp_enrolled_acres (float, Person, YEAR) — acres enrolled in CRP
• crp_contract_type (enum, Person, YEAR) — General, Continuous, CREP, or Grassland
• crp_county_rental_rate (float, Person, YEAR) — per-acre soil rental rate (published by USDA FSA)

New computed variables

• is_crp_eligible (bool) — has enrolled acres and is farmer/landowner
• crp_annual_rental_payment (float, USD) — the annual payment amount
• crp_cost_share_payment (float, USD) — 50% cost share for establishing conservation cover

Parameters

• gov/usda/fsa/crp/proration_factor/general — 0.85
• gov/usda/fsa/crp/proration_factor/continuous — 0.90
• gov/usda/fsa/crp/cost_share_rate — 0.50
• gov/usda/fsa/crp/max_annual_payment — $50,000 per person ($100,000 with waiver)

Integration with existing tax model

CRP rental payments should flow into farm_rent_income or farm_operations_income depending on whether the person materially participates (current IRS rules). This would automatically affect SE tax, AGI, and downstream benefit eligibility calculations.

References

• CRP Program Overview — USDA FSA
• CRP Monthly Summary — USDA FSA
• CRP Regulations — 7 CFR Part 1410
• CRP Soil Rental Rates — USDA FSA

Context

This could be the first of several USDA farm program additions. CRP is the cleanest starting point due to its simple formula, direct-to-person payments, and existing IRS tax integration. Future additions could include Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC), Price Loss Coverage (PLC), and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC).

Happy to submit a PR implementing this if the approach looks reasonable.