Conservation Programs Offer New Opportunities to Farmers

Phillip Brasher has written an interesting article for the Des Moines Register highlighting the success of conservation programs in 2008 Farm Bill in attracting producers and effectively “retooling the farm subsidy program.”

As Brasher writes, this fall more than 21,00 0 farmers and ranchers signed up for the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and some of these farmers and ranchers, like organic vegetable farmer Rick Hartmann, have never signed up for a farm program until now. The CSP pays farmers for the methods they employ in their production practices rather than paying them for the crop they produce.

This is beneficial for organic farmers and farmers of crops who do not qualify for “traditional subsidies” that critics argue harm the environment. With CSP, farmers get payments for measures “taken to improve the fertility of the soil,” and other measures that yield environmental benefits. The program is available to producers in all 50 states, whereas “traditional subsidies” tend to be limited to states where soybean, cotton, corn, grains and other large farm crops are raised. Thus far the USDA has received applications from every state except New Jersey for the CSP.

According to Brasher’s article, “Producers applied for payments on an estimated 32.9 million acres, far more than the 12.9 million acres the USDA can accept under the 2008 farm bill.” While exact figures are not yet available from the USDA, this total does include 12 million acres of “grazing lands and pasture and 1.9 million acres of forest.”

According to Fred Hoefner, policy director for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the overwhelming number of applications shows the interest in the program, and this in turn may increase the political support for expanding the program. ‘"You're going to see political support for this from exactly those areas of the country where there's not high participation in commodity programs,’ Hoefner said. ‘That's going to be very significant over time."’

The payments for the program are supposed to average $18 an acre, “but payments will be larger for crops than for grazing land.” Applications are ranked according to environmental benefits. The program issues payments to accepted farmer applications for five years. Payments can continue after that, but additional conservation measures will have to be adopted by the farmers.

To read the Brasher article click here.

Posted: 10/29/09