Future Participation in the Conservation Reserveprogram in North Dakota (original) (raw)
Related papers
Conservation Reserve Program enrollment decisions in the Prairie Pothole Region
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 2018
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has retained support from farmers and the conservation community for three decades. Beneficial to farmers, the program is voluntary, does not require a permanent easement or the transfer of property rights, and provides fixed income and other financial support. However, high and volatile commodity prices in recent years have increased the opportunity cost of participating, and program enrollment has decreased. This paper considers the influence of contract design on the enrollment decision and estimates the trade-offs between rental rates and program attributes. A stated preference discrete choice experiment was completed during in-person interviews with farmers in the Prairie Pothole Region. Rental payment and establishment cost paid by the government had a direct relationship with likelihood of program enrollment. Tighter restrictions on the use of enrolled land had a negative effect, especially among farmers with livestock. Likelihood of enrollment increased with age, and age decreased responsiveness to increasing maximum bid and to tighter restrictions on land use. Expression of concerns about the CRP affected the degree of responsiveness among farm operators to changes in program attributes. Addressing these concerns through program design or education may serve to increase interest in the program. Farmers were willing to take a lower rental payment under program conditions they considered more favorable including an increased government share for stand establishment and a flexible land use policy. Consideration to introducing CRP contracts with flexible attributes, especially land use constraints, is warranted.
Grasslands are one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world and the majority of the grassland ecosystem in the United States (U.S.) is privately owned and used for agriculture. Conversion of grasslands to row crops is expanding, fueled by commodity price increases, technological improvements, and agricultural policy. The U.S. state and federal governments and many nongovernmental conservation organizations primarily use voluntary incentive-based conservation programs to address the environmental impacts of agriculture and encourage conservation on private land. To investigate the utility of these programs to conserve grasslands, we surveyed private landowners in the Plains and Prairie Potholes Ecoregion (PPPE), one of America’s most at-risk grassland areas, about their land use, environmental attitudes and values, and reasons for or against participating in a Farm Bill Conservation Program (FBCP). Agricultural landowners with large land holdings, who value hunting, and have positive environmental values, attitudes, and behaviors, were more likely to participate in an FBCP. However, FBCP participants reported having a smaller proportion of their land in grass than nonparticipants (29% vs. 35%). Additionally, a higher percentage of FBCP participants, compared to nonparticipants, reported converting grassland to crops (26% vs. 15%) and removing wetlands (20% vs. 15%). Financial considerations and a desire for autonomy limited participation. These findings signal the need for additional research and tools other than FBCPs to conserve the PPPE grasslands.
2015
Interest in the Conservation Reserve Program in the U.S. has waned. Enrollment for 2015 was targeted at 26 million acres but as of the end of February, actual enrollment had declined to 24.6 million acres (USDA, 2015). Available studies point to recent fluctuations in commodity prices as a predominant factor in this enrollment gap. Other potentially influencing factors remain understudied, including farmer preferences for contract design. A choice experiment was conducted in the Prairie Pothole region to assess these preferences. An exploded logit model was used to evaluate the preference heterogeneity among program attributes. Results indicate that an increase in maximum allowed rental payment, length of contract, and the government's share of establishment cost increase utility of farmers, whereas, fixing terms at the beginning of the contract, and imposing more land use restrictions on enrolled land have a negative impact.
Landowner and Practitioner Perspectives on Private Land Conservation Programs
Society & Natural Resources
Efforts to reverse declines in native grasslands benefit from agricultural policies that encourage private land conservation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) improved conservation across landscapes but enrollment has declined. We used sequential exploratory mixed methods to compare landowner and conservation practitioners' perceptions, evaluate perceived benefits, and identify potential improvements to CRP. Focus groups of practitioners informed a quantitative survey of landowners who had properties >160 total acres in Nebraska. Results suggest potential misalignment in perceptions between practitioners and landowners. Practitioners were concerned that conservation, especially of wildlife, was secondary to profit. But the majority of landowners valued CRP-related ecosystem services, including native pollinators. Practitioners posited that younger landowners were primarily profit motivated, but CRP enrollment did not differ by demographics. Practitioners and landowners identified rule complexity as a major challenge and practitioner-landowner relationships as critical to success. Findings suggest that practitioners may underestimate non-economic motivations and illuminate opportunities to encourage private land conservation.
Tenants and part-owners are farming an increasing number of acres in the United States, while fullowners are farming fewer acres. This shift in ownership is a potential cause for concern because some previous research indicated that tenant and part-owner farmers were less likely to adopt conservation practices than farmers who owned the land they farmed. If that trend persists, ownership changes would signal a national drop in conservation adoption. Here we examine this issue using a survey of agricultural operators in the Clear Creek watershed in Iowa, a state with intensive agricultural production. We compare adoption of conservation practices, and preferences for conservation information sources and communication channels, between farmers who rent some portion of the land they farm (tenants and part-owners) and farmers who own all of the land they farm (full-owners). We find that renters are more likely to practice conservation tillage than full-owners, though they are less likely to rotate crops. In addition, renters report using federal government employees (specifically, Natural Resource Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency) as their primary sources of conservation information, while full-owners most frequently rely on neighbors, friends, and County Extension. These findings are significant for conservation policy because, unlike some past research, they indicate that renters are not resistant to all types of conservation practices, echoing recent studies finding an increase in conservation adoption among non-full-owners. Our results emphasize the importance of government conservation communication and can inform outreach efforts by helping tailor effective, targeted conservation strategies for owners and renters.