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The Effect of Conservation Payments on Farmer Adoption Varies Across Conservation Practices

Sometimes, farmers adopt conservation practices without assistance from a conservation program. Conservation practices provide benefits to society at large (through improved environmental quality) and to the farmers themselves. Conservation tillage, for example, reduces labor and fuel costs—and may be profitable for some farmers if crop yields can be maintained or improved. Conservation tillage can also help improve water quality by reducing the loss of sediment and nutrients. To the extent that conservation practices are profitable, government support is not needed to encourage their adoption. Because the profitability of conservation practices can vary across farms, however, it is not always clear whether financial assistance for a practice will result in additional conservation on that farm. ERS research shows that payments leverage additional conservation, but the extent of additionality varies widely across conservation practices. Using data from 2009 to 2012, an ERS study estimated that more than 90 percent of producers who received payments for “structural off-field” practices (such as field borders and filter strips) would not have adopted the practices without a payment. Since these practices largely focus on keeping nutrients and sediments from leaving the farm, the farmers themselves receive little direct economic benefit.

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