Soil Conservation An Assessment of the National Resources Inventory, Volume 2 (1986) / Chapter Skim
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9. New Cropland in the 1982 NRI: Implications for Resource Policy
9. New Cropland in the 1982 NRI: Implications for Resource Policy
Pages 253-272
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From page 253... ...
Conversion of land to crop uses is affected by these policy choices, as well as by proposed sodbuster and conservation reserve legislation designed to reduce any program-related stimulus to misuse erodible land. The large commodity program outlays relative to conservation cost sharing have focused public attention on farm policy options that affect land conversions.
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From page 254... ...
EMERGENCE OF ERODIBLE LAND USE AS A FARM POLICY ISSUE Conservation has had a role in farm programs for several decades, although not a sharply defined one. Terms like "conservation reserve," "soil bank," and "conservation use acres" suggested some conservation purpose for acreage idled by various price support programs.
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From page 255... ...
As prices go up, however, new land is brought into production, a phenomenon referred to as "slippage." The net program effect in the short run is a reduction of erosion on the idled acres, minus any change from erosion on land brought into cultivation. Concern that programs may be having a negative overall effect on soil erosion resulted in legislative initiatives to deny program benefits to farmers plowing new fragile or highly erodible soils.
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From page 256... ...
Highly erodible land has not been much affected by conservation programs because of the high cost of adequate treatment. Yet, the current cross-compliance and sodbuster regulatory options would tend to affect this highly erodible land more than land with moderate erosion problems.
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From page 257... ...
These six land groups provide an excellent basis for analyzing land conversion to cropland: Earlier estimates of average yields and other economic information that influence land conversion decisions can be drawn on, and four of the groups contain either erodible or loweryielding soils that are to be expected at the margin of production. The analysis of acreage reduction programs found that the erodible groups 4 and 5 were not particularly favored by farmers interested in placing their land in current land retirement programs (Ogg et al., 1984)
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From page 259... ...
A given wheat price support outlay is, therefore, less likely than a feedgrain program to damage nonrenewable resources, even though much of the early support for sodbusting legislation originated in wheat states. Similarly, groups 4 and 5, with high potential for sheet and rill erosion, are hardly relevant in evaluating program impacts on cotton production because cotton suffers mainly from wind erosion.
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From page 260... ...
PRICE SUPPORTS AND PROBLEMS WITH THE NEW CROPLAND Yet erosion is not the only problem created by land conversions. Table 1 shows a version of the Iowa State Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)
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From page 262... ...
Short-Term Effects of Farm Subsidies on Land Conversions and Soil Erosion Program rules limiting production to base averages thus discourage both new plowing and soil erosion in the short term. These rules also use various subsidies to persuade farmers to place land in set-asides and crop diversions, reducing erosion on the idled acres.
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From page 263... ...
Long-Term Effects of Farm Programs Base acreages cannot greatly limit new plowing if programs are repeated for several years. Much of the 10.6 million new cropped acres from 1979 to 1982 is therefore somewhat influenced by price supports.
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From page 264... ...
Water Quality Damage from Land Conversions Although 70 percent of the erosion from new crop acres occurred on highly erodible land, according to 1982 NRI data, this land was dispersed across nearly all the major producing regions, which are listed in Table 5. Farm policy choices affecting conversions of erodible land are therefore of national interest from a water quality standpoint.
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From page 265... ...
The 70 percent figure for sediment originating from the highly erosive new cropland acres considerably understates, then, the share of phosphorus damage associated with conversions of highly erodible land. PREVENTING SODBUSTING DURING PRICE SUPPORTS Since land conversion appears to be a long-term investment decision, provisions that prevent farmers from expanding crop acreages during a particular price support year may not address this process.
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From page 266... ...
Although sodbuster legislation and conservation reserves affect these land conversions most directly, a bid system used to retire land in 1983 is also relevant. The bid system primarily reduces the farm program outlays by encouraging rental bids from farmers based on the earnings of each piece of land.
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From page 267... ...
Although it also has lower yields on the average, land with wetness and other problems account for the lowest yields, as the erodible land among the new acres comes from fairly productive land groups. When crop surpluses exist, farm programs attempt to discourage participants from planting new acres in the program crops because the additional cropland undermines the ability to control surpluses.
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From page 268... ...
The erosion and yield analysis of land conversion needs to be expanded along the lines of a recently completed analysis of acreage reduction programs. For specific sodbuster provisions or other policy choices affecting one or more major crops, the physical and economic information is now available to anticipate yield, costs, and erosion impacts for 105 local producing areas in the United States.
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From page 269... ...
1984. Economic analysis of acreage reduction alternatives including a soil conservation reserve and competitive bids.
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From page 270... ...
However, this is not adequate to suggest that a policy of prohibiting all land conversion should be adopted. It is reasonable to expect that some land coming into production has higher productivity and lower erosion rates than some land in the base.
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From page 271... ...
Sedimentation of reservoirs, drainage ditches, and harbors is going to be a bigger problem than the onsite damages used in determining T values, the ubiquitous soil loss tolerance limits. It may be worthwhile to begin now to develop a tolerance limit based on the offsite damages associated with erosion, perhaps designated I
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From page 272... ...
More explicitly, what are the projections of the rate at which additional land will come into development over the next few years or longer? As pointed out, crop acreage reduction programs have nearly offset new land development.
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