Soil Carbon Sequestration Strategies with Alternative Tillage and Nitrogen Sources under Risk

Dustin L. Pendell, Jeffery R. Williams, Scott B. Boyles, Charles W. Rice and Richard G. Nelson

Review of Agricultural Economics, 2007, vol. 29, issue 2, pages 247-268

Abstract: This study examines the economic potential of using either no-tillage or conventional tillage with either commercial nitrogen or cattle manure to sequester soil in continuous corn production. This research uses stochastic efficiency with respect to a function to determine the preferred production systems under various risk preferences and utility-weighted certainty equivalent risk premiums to determine the carbon credit values needed to motivate adoption of systems, which sequester higher levels of carbon. The results indicate that no-tillage and cattle manure increase carbon sequestration. Carbon credits or government program incentives are not required to entice risk-averse managers to use no-tillage, but are required to encourage manure use as a means of sequestering additional carbon even at historically high nitrogen prices. New environmental rules for confined animal feeding operations may increase the demand for land to apply manure as a primary nutrient source and participation in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Security Program, and a carbon credit market to obtain payments to offset some or all of the costs of manure application. Copyright 2007 American Agricultural Economics Association

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