USDA: There Are A Variety Of Conservation Programs That Benefit On Farm Operations

Specific farm conservation practices included in USDA programs provide land owners both environmental and economic incentives.

“About 80% of practices in the group that we looked at were completed as originally planned,” said USDA economic researcher Steve Wallander.

He noted comes from a recent USDA study.  However, completion rates for specific practices during the life of the program contract vary.  Wallander explained sometimes land owners are paid for conservation practices they had planned to implement without a contract in the first place.

”To have an impact from an economic perceptive you have to look at a practice and say what percentage of those were really new practices that we wouldn't have gotten without the incentives and that's the concept that economists call additionally,” Wallander added.

He said while practices like "no till" are already being put in to place by land-owners without payment incentives, it was more likely others like field borders and filter strips would not be implemented without a payment contract in place.

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