The conservation reserve: Potential impacts and problems

Excerpt

WITH passage of the new farm bill, the Food Security Act of 1985, Congress and the Reagan Administration put into place the most innovative group of soil conservation measures since the 1930s. The conservation title of the act includes many different elements: sodbuster, swampbuster, conservation compliance, conservation reserve, conservation easements, and multi-year set-asides. Implications for conservation and commodity supply control are extensive if the programs are implemented as envisioned during the congressional deliberations.

While each of the provisions is important in different respects, the conservation reserve has been claimed as the “…foundation of all future agricultural and conservation policy” (9). Owners and operators of highly erodible cropland would voluntarily bid these acres into the conservation reserve for 10 years. Commercial use of enrolled acres will not be permitted during the contract period.

The concept is similar to the oid soil bank program. There are some important differences, however.

How the reserve will work

Not all details about implementation of the conservation reserve have been released. But an interpretation of the authorizing legislative language and subsequent U.S. Department of Agriculture releases on implementation procedures reveals the basic program structure. Although minor changes may yet be …