Policy Interactions at the Farm Level: An Evaluation of Participation in the Conservation Reserve Program and Related Policy Decisions (original) (raw)
Related papers
2006
Using a national survey of U.S farm households, we investigate the interrelationship between participation in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the decision to work off the farm. We go on examine the effects of these two decisions on farm and farm household efficiency and productivity by estimating stochastic frontier productions for farm output and multiple output-orientated distance functions that consider income from agricultural sales, the CRP and off-farm work as outputs of the farm household. We control for the effects of self selection in estimating both the frontier production and distance functions. It appears that operators'� decisions to work off the farm have led to significant improvements in household resource allocation between farm and other productive activities by farm households -- leading to high technical efficiency for both farm and farm household activities. In contract, participation in the CRP alone leads to the reduction of the technical effic...
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2005
The United States has invested large sums of resources in multiple conservation programs for agriculture over the past century. In this paper we focus on the impacts of program interactions. Specifically, using an integrated economic and bio-physical modeling framework, we consider the impacts of the presence of working land programs on a land retirement for an important agricultural region-the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Compared to a land retirement only program, we find that the presence of a working land program for conservation tillage results in significantly lower predicted signups for land retirement at a given rental rate. We also find that the presence of both a large working land and land retirement program can result in more environmental benefits and income transfers than a land retirement only program can achieve.
Working-land conservation structures: evidence on program and non-program participants
In recent years, the Federal government has placed more emphasis on working-land conservation programs. Farmers can be reimbursed for adopting certain conservation practices, such as the installation of in-field or perimeter conservation structures, to enhance water quality and soil productivity. In an effort to better understand the relationships between operator motivations, program incentives, and the environmental benefits of conservation programs, a multi-agency survey, the Conservation Effects Assessment Project-Agricultural Resources Management Survey (CEAP-ARMS), was conducted in 2004 across 16 states representing more than one-million farmers growing wheat. The nationally representative survey integrates Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) data on field-level physical characteristics, program information, farm-level costs of production, and farm household information. This objective of this paper is twofold. First, using the CEAP-ARMS, farm structure, household, and operator characteristics of farmers participating in one or more conservation programs are compared with farmers not participating in a conservation program. Second, an impact model is specified to test whether program participants allocated more acres to in-field or perimeter conservation structures than nonparticipants, holding other factors constant. Evidence suggests that program participants allocate more field acres to vegetative conservation structures than nonparticipants with in-field or perimeter conservation structures.
The Conservation Reserve Program, Off-Farm Work, and Farm Household Technical Efficiencies
2009
Using data from a national survey of farm households in the United States, this paper examines the effects of farm households' decisions to participate in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and to work off the farm on the technical efficiency of farm household production. After controlling for the self selection bias in estimating the multiple output-oriented distance functions, results show that operators' decisions to work off the farm (both separately and combined with participation in CRP) lead to higher technical efficiencies for farm household production— implying improvements in the resource allocation between farm and other productive activities by farm households. The technical efficiencies of household production of those farm households participating only in the CRP are lower.
The Farm Act's Regional Equity Provision: Impacts on Conservation Program Outcomes
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2010
The 2002 and 2008 Farm Acts increased funding for conservation programs that provide financial assistance to farmers to implement conservation practices on working farmland. Along with seeking cost-effective environmental benefits, these programs have a goal of spreading conservation funding equitably across States. The 2002 and 2008 Farm Acts strengthened this allocative goal by setting a minimum threshold for conservation funding for each State-one that exceeds historical funding for some States-for enrolling agricultural producers in specified conservation programs. This study uses conservation program data to examine evidence of the impacts of the Regional Equity provision of the 2002 Farm Act, and explores the tradeoffs that can occur among conservation program goals when legislation gives primacy to fund allocation. The study found that cross-State shifts in funding reduced the acres receiving conservation treatment for many resource problems, but increased the net economic benefits from treatments on some of them. Overall impacts on the types of producers enrolled were small.
The Conservation Reserve Program: Economic Implications for Rural America
2004
This report estimates the impact that high levels of enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) have had on economic trends in rural counties since the program's inception in 1985 until today. The results of a growth model and quasi-experimental control group analysis indicate no discernible impact by the CRP on aggregate county population trends. Aggregate employment growth may have slowed in some high-CRP counties, but only temporarily. High levels of CRP enrollment appear to have affected farm-related businesses over the long run, but growth in the number of other nonfarm businesses moderated CRP's impact on total employment. If CRP contracts had ended in 2001, simulation models suggest that roughly 51 percent of CRP land would have returned to crop production, and that spending on outdoor recreation would decrease by as much as $300 million per year in rural areas. The resulting impacts on employment and income vary widely among regions having similar CRP enrollments, depending upon local economic conditions.
Agricultural Economics, 2008
This study uses U.S. farm household survey data to examine how participation in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) affects farm household economic well-being. Further, the study also examines the effects of CRP participation on farm household consumption, income, and imputed savings. In contrast to previous studies that assume the relationships are homogenous across the population, quantile regression is used to investigate the association between CRP participation across the entire distribution of farm household consumption and income. Empirical findings suggest that the effect of CRP participation on household economic well-being differs across the income and consumption distribution. For households in the lower percentiles of the distribution, the CRP participation is associated with an increase in household consumption, but a decrease in farm household income and savings. In contrast, farm households at the median and higher income and consumption quantiles, participation in CRP is associated with lower levels of household consumption and income, but with higher levels of savings.
2003
This study investigated factors that affect participation behavior of limited resource farmers (LRF) in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in Alabama. A binary logit model was employed to analyze data obtained from 611 respondents. Results indicated that males, part-time occupation, total acres, participation in non-conservation related programs, direct method of receiving CRP information, and respondents' interest in receiving CRP information, were strong predictors of participation in the CRP.