Excerpt
SOIL conservation issues resurfaced in the United States during the 1970s when crop acreage expanded by more than 20 percent to meet a 132 percent rise in agricultural exports. This large, rapid expansion in cropland acres generated concern that increased soil erosion might impair the nation's long-term foodproducing capability.
In recent years the agricultural market situation has changed dramatically, but erosion persists. And concern about erosion has not subsided. Indeed, many people view the current period of overproduction as an opportunity to deal with the erosion problem.
Proposals for solving the problem generally fall into two categories. One group of proposals presumes that society can and should expect farmers to practice conservation in exchange for farm price supports and other assistance. A typical proposal in this category is cross-compliance between conservation and commodity programs. In reality, minimal cross-compliance is now required: Acreage reduction programs require the idled acres be put to some approved conservation use. The usual stipulation is that the farmer plant a cover crop on the idled land.
Other proposals go further, for example, by expecting the farmer to pay for improved conservation practices in exchange for program benefits, so long as the …
Footnotes
Clayton W. Ogg and James A. Zellner are agricultural economists with the Food and Agricultural Policy Branch of the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, D.C. 20250.
- Copyright 1984 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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