ABSTRACT:
During the debate surrounding the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 and in the subsequent report of the conference committee, the Water Quality Incentives Program (WQIP) was held as the centerpiece of the 1990 farm bill's nonpoint source reduction mandate. Using data collected from surveys of 770 farmers with land critical for surface or groundwater quality located in ten diverse counties in the Cornbelt, results of logistic regression of factors influencing farmers' willingness to participate in the WQIP are presented. Farmer interest in the WQIP is limited and is significantly influenced by farmers' attitudes toward governmental involvement with wetland regulation, education, tenure status, contact with Natural Resources Conservation Service, and percentage of farm sales derived from specialty crops. The results raise doubts as to whether the WQIP can serve as the “centerpiece” of the USDA's nonpoint source pollution control efforts.
Footnotes
Steven E. Kraft is a professor in the Department of Agribusiness Economics; Christopher Lant is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography; and Keith Gillman is a graduate assistant in the Department of Geography at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
- Copyright 1996 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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