Toward effective land retirement legislation

Dana L. Hoag; Douglas L. Young

ABSTRACT:

Legislation to protect a farm's base acreage would permit erodible land placed in a conservation reserve to remain in a farm's base acreage and thereby quality as set-aside acres for U.S. Department of Agriculture commodity programs. Research in the 1.2-million-acre Palouse region of Washington and Idaho showed that base acreage protection could reduce the taxpayer cost of motivating profitable retirement of 268,000 erodible acres by $6 million annually, a savings of 42%. In regions with lower yielding, erodible land the savings would be even greater. Base acreage protection should, therefore, precede or accompany conservation reserve legislation if government commodity programs continue.

Footnotes

Dana L. Hoag is an assistant professor of economics and business at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 27650; Douglas L. Young is an associate professor of agricultural economics at Washington State University, Pullman, 99164. This research was completed under Project 5326, College of Agriculture Research Center, Washington State University. Scientific Paper No. 7014.
Copyright 1985 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

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