The dynamics of soil erosion in US agriculture

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Abstract

Soil erosion has both on-farm and off-farm impacts. Reduction of soil depth can impair the land's productivity, and the transport of sediments can degrade streams, lakes, and estuaries. To address this problem, soil conservation policies have existed in the United States for over 60 years. Initially, these policies focused on the on-farm benefits of keeping soil on the land and increasing net farm income. Beginning in the 1980s, however, policy goals increasingly included reductions in off-site impacts of erosion. The Food Security Act of 1985 was the first major legislation explicitly to tie eligibility to receive agricultural program payments to conservation performance. The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (FAIR) of 1996 modifies the conservation compliance provisions by providing farmers with greater flexibility in developing and implementing conservation plans. As a consequence of conservation efforts, total soil erosion between 1982 and 1997 was reduced by 42% and the erosion rate fell from 8.0 tons per acre in 1982 to 5.2 tons per acre in 1997. Still, soil erosion is imposing substantial social costs. In 1997 these costs are estimated to have been approx. US$29.7 billion. To further reduce soil erosion and thereby mitigate its social costs, there are a number of policy options available to induce farmers to adopt conservation practices including education and technical assistance, financial assistance, research and development, land retirement, and regulation and taxes.

Introduction

Soil erosion remains a serious environmental problem in parts of the United States, even after more than 60 years of state and federal efforts to control it. The most widespread offsite erosion-related problem is impairment of water resource use (National Research Council, 1993, Natural Resources Conservation Service, 1996). The Environmental Protection Agency has identified siltation associated with erosion in rivers and lakes as the second leading cause of water quality impairment, and agricultural production is identified as the leading cause of water quality impairment (US Environmental Protection Agency, 1995).

Related causes of water use impairment are sedimentation and eutrophication. When soil particles wash off a field, they may be carried in runoff until discharged into a water body or stream. Not all agricultural constituents that are transported from a field reach water systems, but a significant portion does, especially the more chemically active, finer soil particles. Once agricultural pollutants enter a water system, they lower water quality and can impose economic losses on water users. These offsite impacts can be substantial. The offsite impacts of erosion are potentially greater than the onsite productivity effects in the aggregate (Foster and Dabney, 1995). Therefore society may have a larger incentive for reducing erosion than farmers have.

If the runoff reaches the water body or stream, soil particles can be suspended in the water, or settle out as sediment, depending on the velocity of the waterflow and the size of the soil particles. In each case, water use can be affected.

Suspended soil particles affect the biologic nature of water systems by reducing the transmission of sunlight, raising surface water temperatures, and affecting the respiration and digestion of aquatic life. The effects on aquatic life, and the reduction in aesthetic quality of recreation sites, can reduce the value of water for recreation uses. Suspended soil particles impose costs on water treatment facilities which must filter out the particles. Suspended soil particles can also damage moving parts in pumps and turbines.

Even when soil particles settle on the bottom of a river or lake, they can cause serious problems for aquatic life by covering food sources, hiding places, and nesting sites. Sedimentation can clog navigation and water conveyance systems like roadside ditches, reduce reservoir capacity, and damage recreation sites. In streambeds, sedimentation can lead to an increase in the frequency and severity of flooding by reducing channel capacity.

Wind erosion produces offsite impacts that can be as dramatic as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It has not, however, received the attention given to the more widespread water erosion impacts. Damage can include higher maintenance of buildings and landscaping, pitting of automobile finishes and glass, greater wear on machinery parts, increased soiling and deterioration of retail inventories, costs of removing blown sand and dust from roads and ditches, and increased respiratory and eye disorders. Offsite damages from wind erosion depend on the extent and location of population centers relative to prevailing winds and wind erosion sources (Piper and Lee, 1989). Consequently, damage estimates for one area cannot readily be extrapolated to other areas, nor can the impact of wind erosion from cropland or other agricultural land be differentiated from wind erosion originating on non-agricultural land.

Offsite impacts of both sheet and rill (water) erosion and wind erosion may be subject to threshold effects (Zison et al., 1977).2 A reduction in erosion may not produce proportional improvements in water or air quality unless they are quite large in relation to total loads. In economic terms, the costs of erosion control practices that result in only small reductions in erosion may produce few, if any, offsite benefits.

A third and somewhat ancillary erosion-related problem deals with wildlife. Monoculture production and field consolidation have diminished habit diversity in areas where agriculture once contributed to diversity (Strohbehn, 1986). Soil conservation practices frequently enhance wildlife habitat. Field borders, windbreaks, hedgerows, riparian buffers, and wildlife habitat management can increase habitat diversity. Practices aimed at wildlife protection, however, often divert land from row crop production thereby creating opportunity costs.

Section snippets

Soil conservation programs

Soil conservation policies have existed in the United States for more than 60 years. Initially, these policies focused on the on-farm benefits of keeping soil on the land and increasing net farm income. The conservation and related water quality programs administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) primarily have been designed to induce the voluntary adoption of conservation practices. The USDA has used a number of policy tools including on-farm technical assistance and extension

Data

The Rural Development Act of 1972 (Public Law 92-419) directed the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a land inventory and monitoring program that reflects soil, water, and related resource conditions at not less than 5-year intervals. The Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-192) stipulated that this inventory be the basis for developing a soil and water conservation program — the National Conservation Program. These inventory activities are conducted within the

Policies designed to affect the adoption of specific production practices

Several public policies can be used to affect farmers' choices of production practices and technologies: education and technical assistance, financial assistance, research and development, land retirement, and regulation and taxes. Each policy has implications about agricultural profits and the allocation of public funds.

Conclusion

Soil erosion has both on-farm and off-farm impacts. Reduction of soil depth can impair the land's productivity, and the transport of sediments can degrade streams, lakes, and estuaries.

Soil conservation policies have existed in the United States for over 60 years. Initially, these policies focused on the on-farm benefits of keeping soil on the land and increasing net farm income. Beginning in the 1980s, however, policy goals increasingly included reductions in off-site impacts of erosion. The

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    The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the policies of the US Department of Agriculture or the views of other US Department of Agriculture staff members.

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