Sodbusting: Land Use Change and Farm Programs

Ralph E. Heimlich

No 307993, Agricultural Economic Reports from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: Farmers converted 11.1 million acres of land to cropland between 1979 and 1981, but only 1.9 million acres were both highly erodible and planted to program crops. Although concern about sodbusting focuses on the Great Plains, such conversion has been occurring in all regions. Analysis of costs and returns indicates that farm programs do provide an incentive to convert highly erodible land to cropland. Participation in price support and subsidized loan programs would have made net returns on 384,000 acres of highly erodible land profitable in 1982. Proposed legislation would remove such incentives, but the proposed system for identifying highly erodible land does not precisely identify new cropland with high potential for excessive erosion.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Financial Economics; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 1985-06
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uerser:307993

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.307993

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