VIDALIA &8212; The United States Department of Agriculture announced $1.2 billion in aid to farmers for losses suffered during the 2005 hurricane season.

Concordia Parish, which is designated a secretarial disaster area but not a higher-priority primary presidential disaster area, doesn&8217;t figure to see much of it directly.

But Farm Service Agency Executive Director Kevin Case said he is hopeful the largesse won&8217;t cut into regular disaster subsidies and there will be some future assistance for those soybean farmers affected by last August&8217;s drought.

&8220;We had a significant amount of soy not harvested,&8221; he said. &8220;I expect similar assistance to what we received for crop years 2002-04.&8221;

According to Environmental Working Group&8217;s Farm Subsidy Database, the USDA gave out $2,998,147 in disaster subsidies to 331 recipients in the parish over the three years.

EWG is an environmental watchdog group.

For those farmers looking for a crop with a little later maturing date on their crops &8212; like 15 years later &8212; the USDA announced signup dates for the Conservation Reserve Program.

The program, the largest administered by the USDA, Case said, allows farmers to rent their unprofitable patches of land for planting as hardwood tree forests.

&8220;It&8217;s for the less productive areas go,&8221; Case said. &8220;Most every farm has a field or a portion of a field that should have never been cleared. I like to see that go.&8221;

The contracts are 15 years, which can be a source of financial security.

Concordia is the second-largest participant in the program, after West Carroll, with more and 400 local contracts, Case said.

The catch is that the program is only open to landowners. And while no one is sorry to see unprofitable farmland out of the equation &8212; theoretically reducing crop size, and raising the price &8212; some renters worry that good land is starting to be taken out of production.

Case said he understands that fewer plantable acres can have the effect of driving up rent prices, but parish&8217;s locally-elected county committee &8212; composed of farmers &8212; works hard to set the CRP rents at a price everyone can live with.

Ultimately, Case said the program is a &8220;double-edged sword.&8221;

&8220;It does reduce the amount of land for row-cropping,&8221; he said. &8220;Some of it has been good land. But I&8217;ve seen cases where people could keep the family farm and not lose it to the bank because of the program.&8221;