I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1853
To require a study of the barriers to conservation practice adoption on
leased agricultural land, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH5, 2025
Ms. B
ROWNLEY(for herself, Ms. SALINAS, and Ms. STANSBURY) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To require a study of the barriers to conservation practice
adoption on leased agricultural land, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Conservation for Agri-4
cultural Leased Land Act’’ or the ‘‘CALL Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) According to a 2016 study by the Economic 8
Research Service of the Department of Agriculture, 9
39 percent of agricultural land in the United States 10
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is leased, including the majority (53 percent) of 1
cropland. 2
(2) The participation of landowners and tenants 3
in Federal, State, and local conservation programs, 4
and the adoption of conservation practices on land 5
that they own or manage, can be limited by a wide 6
range of factors that are not fully understood. 7
(3) Much of the limited information that is 8
known comes from the Tenure, Ownership, and 9
Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) Survey 10
conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics 11
Service, in collaboration with the Economic Research 12
Service; regularly recurring data collection through 13
the TOTAL Survey and other Department of Agri-14
culture reports is vital to understanding land tenure 15
trends, challenges, and opportunities. 16
(4) Some of the potential barriers to such par-17
ticipation and adoption include the structure or term 18
of the lease or rental agreement, the level of inde-19
pendence given to the operator, the awareness of the 20
landowner of both conservation practice and pro-21
gram opportunities and the costs and benefits asso-22
ciated with those opportunities, and other policy or 23
market factors. 24
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(5) The solutions to these issues are unlikely to 1
be ‘‘one size fits all’’ and must be better understood. 2
SEC. 3. STUDY. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out a 4
study of the participation in conservation programs of, 5
and the adoption of conservation practices on, leased agri-6
cultural land. 7
(b) C
OLLABORATION.—The study under this section 8
shall be carried out in collaboration with the Economic 9
Research Service. 10
(c) C
ONTENTS.—The study carried out under this 11
section shall include— 12
(1) a review of relevant existing research lit-13
erature, including— 14
(A) the Tenure, Ownership, and Transition 15
of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) Survey con-16
ducted by the National Agricultural Statistics 17
Service, in collaboration with the Economic Re-18
search Service; and 19
(B) the report titled ‘‘Understanding and 20
Activating Non-Operating Landlords’’, pub-21
lished by the American Farmland Trust in Sep-22
tember, 2020; 23
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(2) a review of initiatives conducted by the Co-1
operative Extension System to increase the adoption 2
of conservation practices on leased agricultural land; 3
(3) identification and quantification of the var-4
ious types and structures of current agricultural 5
land leasing relationships; 6
(4) research on the history, and estimation of 7
future trends, of agricultural land ownership; 8
(5) examination of what leasing models have 9
been effective in encouraging the adoption of con-10
servation practices; 11
(6) consideration of regional variations; 12
(7) examination of existing Federal incentives 13
for adopting conservation practices, and the degree 14
to which such incentives are currently utilized with 15
respect to leased agricultural lands; 16
(8) research on State and local incentive pro-17
grams that are encouraging conservation practice 18
adoption on leased agricultural land; 19
(9) research on the benefits of transitioning 20
from land leasing to land ownership on conservation 21
practice adoption and Federal conservation program 22
participation; 23
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(10) examination of the effects of competition 1
in cash rents on the adoption of conservation prac-2
tices on leased agricultural lands; 3
(11) examination of what happens to conserva-4
tion practices currently underway on leased agricul-5
tural land when new tenants take over such land; 6
and 7
(12) research on how the Department of Agri-8
culture communicates regarding conservation prac-9
tice adoption to farmers and ranchers who do not 10
own the land they operate and to landowners who 11
lease out their agricultural land. 12
(d) C
ONSIDERATION.—The study under this section 13
shall be carried out with particular consideration of farm-14
ers and ranchers who are people of color, including Black 15
and indigenous farmers and ranchers, and beginning 16
farmers and ranchers. 17
(e) R
EPORT.—Not later than December 31, 2026, the 18
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report containing— 19
(1) the results of the study conducted under 20
this section; and 21
(2) recommendations, based on such study, for 22
addressing the barriers unique to various agricul-23
tural land leasing relationships to adopting conserva-24
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tion practices on leased agricultural land, includ-1
ing— 2
(A) recommendations that can be imple-3
mented under existing statutory authorities; 4
(B) recommendations that would require 5
congressional authorization in order to be im-6
plemented; and 7
(C) recommendations for outreach. 8
(f) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary may enter 9
into an agreement with a non-Federal entity (such as a 10
nonprofit entity or university), selected through an appli-11
cation process, to carry out this section. 12
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
(1) L
EASED AGRICULTURAL LAND .—The term 14
‘‘leased agricultural land’’ means agricultural land 15
that is operated, under a lease or other rental agree-16
ment, by a farmer or rancher who does not own the 17
land. 18
(2) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 19
the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Na-20
tional Agricultural Statistics Service. 21
Æ
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