The Farm Act's Regional Equity Provision: Impacts on Conservation Program Outcomes

Cynthia J. Nickerson, Marc Ribaudo and Nathaniel Higgins

No 95452, Economic Research Report from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uersrr:95452

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.95452

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