Excerpt
Since the adoption of the Clean Water Act in 1972, there has been increased attention paid to agricultural operations as potential contributors of surface water pollutants including sediments, nutrients, and pesticides. Many of these pollutants enter into the surface water through erosion and runoff events on cropland. Over the past 35 years, millions of dollars have been spent on the promotion, installation, and maintenance of cropland best management practices (BMPs), which have proven effective at reducing soil erosion and nutrient and pesticide runoff. Adoption of cropland BMPs is critical for restoring and protecting surface water quality in agricultural watersheds.
Because BMPs result in many societal benefits, there are various conservation programs in place through national and state agencies that encourage adoption through cost-share and incentive payments. The goal of these payments is to compensate the producer for one-time installation costs, annual operation and maintenance costs, and overall profit losses. This approach has had notable success to date; however, many producers still choose not to participate in conservation programs and/or decide not to implement BMPs on their cropland fields (Conservation Technology Information Center 2002). Why is this the case? If a BMP is, in fact, profit neutral (or …
Footnotes
Craig M. Smith is a watershed economist, Jeffrey M. Peterson is an associate professor, and John C. Leatherman is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas. For more information, contact Craig M. Smith (785-532-3035, smithcra@ksu.edu).
- Copyright 2007 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.