Producers' Net Costs Influence Offers to USDA's Conservation Reserve Program

Bryan Pratt and Steven Wallander

Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, 2022, vol. 2022

Abstract: To enroll in USDA's Conservation Reserve Program through its General Signup, cropland owners and producers offer to establish a specific cover practice on their fields in a return for a rental rate at or below a maximum set by USDA's Farm Service Agency. Every offer receives its own score using a ranking tool called the Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) that reflects differences in environmental characteristics, conservation cover quality, and cost. FSA ranks offers by EBI and accepts only those offers with an EBI greater than a threshold selected by the USDA. Cover practices with higher EBI points typically cost more to establish, creating a tradeoff between conservation benefits and cost for program participants and for USDA. Overall, producers are less likely to offer acreage in a cover practice as that practice becomes more expensive.

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uersaw:324121

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.324121

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