Iowa Farm Environmental Leaders' Perspectives on the U.S. Farm Bill Conservation Programs

Gabriel Medina,Catherine Isley,J Arbuckle

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2020.497943

Abstract

As stakeholders prepare to lobby future Farm Bills, this study reveals farmers’ perspectives on federal conservation programs. In-depth interviews were held with ten farm environmental leaders, farmers who have extensive experience with conservation practices and federal conservation programs. Results reveal that conservation programs have played a limited but important role in incentivizing the adoption of and offsetting costs for establishing conservation practices. Programs’ strengths, weaknesses, and potential improvements were also explored; results reveal that most farmers believe existing conservation programs could be improved with relatively minor tweaks and adaptations, such as more flexibility in working land program requirements and adjustments to land retirement program payment rates. To some extent, farm environmental leaders also align themselves with the perspectives of environmental NGOs, advocating for transformative approaches, such as expanding mandatory conservation compliance to all cropland, including non-Highly Erodible Lands cropland.

Highlights

Farmers perceive a tradeoff between short-term profit and long-term environmental sustainability (Arbuckle, 2016; Roesch-McNally et al, 2017)
Interviews were held with farmers who had received the Iowa Farm Environmental Leadership (IFEL) Award1 for incorporating conservation practices into their farming operations
Conservation Compliance had had less of an impact among the interviewed farmers, but it had helped catalyze the adoption of conservation tillage in a few cases

Summary

Introduction

Farmers perceive a tradeoff between short-term profit and long-term environmental sustainability (Arbuckle, 2016; Roesch-McNally et al, 2017). The CSP is a working lands program that provides annual and cost-share payments to reward existing conservation practices and promotes further improvements by incentivizing incorporation of new conservation practices over time through 5-year contracts (USDA, 2016). EQIP is another working lands program that provides conservation practice cost-share, but with an emphasis on livestock production and through shorter-term contracts for specific practices and conservation planning and technical assistance (USDA, 2018). The CRP is a program that establishes 10 and 15-year contracts with farmers and landowners to remove environmentally sensitive lands from agricultural production and install resource-conserving practices (Lambert et al, 2007; USDA, 2019). Individual states often have additional conservation programs, but this research has focused on the aforementioned Farm Bill programs

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