The management practices farmers choose have significant effect on agricultural pollution. The authors analyze the adoption of alternative combinations of conservation practices and their impacts on fertilizer use, corn yield, and soil erosion in the Central Nebraska Basin, using a...

CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) renewal may depend on improved targeting of payments to maintain a significant portion of existing environmental and farm benefits at a reduced program cost. The authors consider three alternative renewal criteria: renewal of least expensive land first, renewal...

This report estimates the economic and environmental trade-offs of the 1995 Farm Bill policy options evaluated by FAPRI. Assessments are provided for the 1995 FAPRI baseline, 25 percent Normal Flex, and the Revenue Assurance program. The authors describe the modeling systems and the CEEPES-FAPRI...

Over the past decade, conservation compliance has reduced soil erosion. What will happen to these erosion benefits if commodity programs are eliminated or if the subsidy level is greatly reduced? This study investigates whether there will be a significant decline in the amount of acreage on...

To evaluate the impact of conservation policies on soil organic carbon in agricultural soils, the authors link information from the 1992 National Resources Inventory (NRI) database and the extensive physical data on soils and climate from the SOILS5 database. These data serve as input for a...

Congress has wrestled with the issue of which land should be enrolled in a renewal of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), considering that benefits to wildlife from CRP are substantial. This paper evaluates the amount of land that may qualify for CRP enrollment in order to provide high-value...

A viable agricultural policy should adapt to any changes occurring within the agricultural sector. With the growing focus on environmentally friendly agriculture, increased role for markets by reducing the influence of farm programs, agricultural-related global climate change, and budgetary...

The Central Nebraska Basin (CNB) is the site of intensive agricultural activity, in part because of the good irrigation supplies provided by the Middle Platte alluvial aquifer system. In this paper, the authors describe the integrated modeling system that addresses the economic and environmental...

Green payment programs, by which the government pays farmers directly for environmental benefits, have been proposed as an alternative to the current method of achieving environmental benefits by restricting farming practices in exchange for deficiency payments. This paper examines a green...

When the government wants farmers to adopt a certain management practice on environmentally sensitive land, it can mandate adoption, with fines for noncompliance, or use a stewardship program, with incentives for those who comply. The Federal Agriculture Improvement Act of 1996 (FAIR) continues...