2017 SWCS Annual Conference July 30-August 2, 2017 Monona Terrace Convention Center

1. OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO ADOPTION BY
EXPANDING SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL HORIZONS
Michelle Wander
University of Illinois, Department of
Natural Resources and Environmental
Sciences
mwander@Illinois.edu

2. THE FARM BILL
Began in 1933 to:
• keep food prices fair for farmers and consumers,
• ensure an adequate food supply,
• and protect and sustain the country’s vital natural resources
• Title I Commodities
• Title II Conservation
• Title III Trade
• Title IV Nutrition
• Title V Credit
• Title VI Rural Development
• Title VII Research
• Title VIII Forestry
• Title IX Energy
• Title X Horticulture
• Title XI Crop Insurance
• Title XII Miscellaneous

3. EARLY PROGRAMS
• Cropland Adjustment Act (CAA) 1934- diverted 37 m acres from crop
production.
• Soil Conservation Domestic Allotment Act 1936, established SCS and
Agricultural Conservation Program (ACP I 1936-1942) for perennial legumes
and grasses, (ACP II 1943-1947) for subsidized harvest of legumes and grass
seed.
• Soil Bank: Acreage Reserve (1956-1958) had little benefit to soil or wildlife,
Conservation Reserve (1956-1970) required seeding perennial legumes and
grasses.
• Emergency Feed Grain Program (EFP 1961-1973) annual contract with no
requirement for perennial planting.
• Cropland Adjustment Program (CAP 1966-1976) 5-10 year contracts for
perennial plantings and allowance for public use.
W. Edwards. 1994.

4. ACREAGE ‘SET ASIDE’
W. Edwards. 1994.

5. http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2017/05/historical-
background-on-the-crp.html

7. MONEY IN AGRICULTURE IS A PERENNIAL CHALLENGE
• Farm Bill (Direct Payments)
• Subsidies
• Conservation programs
• Crop insurance
• Regulations
Clean Air and Water
Wildlife Protection, Endangered Species
• Incentives (Indirect Payments?)
• Tax incentives (conservation easements)
• Price premiums paid for stewardship

8. 1. CONSERVATION RESERVE
PROGRAM (CRP)
• Began in 1985: yearly rental payments for removal of environmentally
sensitive land from agricultural production and re-establish valuable land
cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and reduce loss of
wildlife habitat.
• General CRP sign-ups occur when FSA announces an enrollment period, the
program is competitive and offers are ranked against each other on a national
level.
• Ranked using the Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) which scores applications
based on the environmental sensitivity of the land and the type(s) of
conservation practices proposed.

9. THE EBI MEASURES
• Wildlife habitat benefits resulting from covers on
contract acres;
• Benefits that will likely endure beyond the
contract period;
• Water quality benefits from reduced erosion,
runoff and leaching;
• Air quality benefits from reduced wind erosion
• On-farm benefits from reduced erosion;
• Cost.
*In use since 1990

10. 2. CONTINUOUS CRP:1996
• To establish conservation
buffers and restore certain
types of wetlands by
installing targeted, partial
field conservation practices
• Focuses on environmentally
sensitive land (stream
banks, wetlands, field
margins)
• One-time special incentive
payments offered for
certain practices
• Open enrollment, offers are
not ranked against each
other.
2016 CCRP 30% of the 24M AC Enrolled in CRP
NSAC,2017

11. CCRP INCLUDES:
Practices
• Buffers for Wildlife Habitat
• Wetlands Buffer
• Wetland Restoration
• Filter Strips
• Grass Waterways
• Shelter Belts
• Living Snow Fences
• Contour Grass
• Strips
• Salt tolerant vegetation
• Shallow water areas for wildlife
Initiatives
• Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program
(CREP),
• Farmable Wetland Program (FWP),
• State Acreage for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE)
initiative, and other initiatives
• Grassland Initiative

12. CCRP PRACTICES
NSAC,2017

13. 3. CONSERVATION EASEMENTS: TAX INCENTIVES
• Voluntary conservation easements are legal tools that separate
development rights from a property or specify conservation
outcomes to be achieved
• Their flexible structure, incentive character, and permanent nature
differs from regulatory tools
• Can be held by local, state or national land trusts or transferred to
public entities
• Not as secure as fee simple but cheaper and allow lands to remain
productive and in private hands
First enacted in 1979, provisions drafted
in 2005 made ‘permanent’ in 2014
Fishburn et al. (2009) PLoS ONE 4(3): e4996.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004996

14. NRCS EASEMENT PROGRAMS
Voluntary programs providing technical help and financial assistance to local
landowners and organizations
• Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) agricultural lands and limit
non-agricultural uses of the land. Eligible entities hold the lease. NRCS covers up
to 50 % of the fair market value of the agricultural land easement or up to 75%
for grasslands of special environmental significance. Must have ALEP
• Wetlands Reserve Easements, NRCS helps to restore, protect and enhance
enrolled wetlands. Pays 100 to purchase permanent easements and 75 -100 %of
restoration costs; For 30 year and term easements, NRCS pays 50 to 75 of
purchase and restoration costs;
• Healthy Forests Reserve Program (HFRP) helps landowners restore, enhance and
protect forestland resources. 10-year restoration agreements and 30-year or
permanent easements for specific conservation actions.

15. EASEMENT INVESTMENT
Proposed budget
• Raises the deduction a donor can take for
donating a conservation easement from 30
percent to 50 percent of his or her adjusted
gross income in any year;
• Allows qualifying farmers and ranchers to
deduct the value of the donated easement
up to 100 percent of their income; and
• Extends the carry-over period for a donor to
take the easement tax deductions from 5 to
15 years beyond the tax year that the gift
was made
• Adds restrictions and demands verification of
performance
Tabas, 2016: http://www.acoel.org/post/2016/03/16/-
Recent-Developments-in-Federal-Conservation-
Easements-the-Good-and-(Sort-of)-Bad-News.aspx
http://sustainableagriculture.net/publications/grassro
otsguide/conservation-environment/agricultural-
conservation-easement-program/

16. FARM BILL DOLLARS
https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/44331/10593_page5.pdf?v=41055

17. 4. ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INCENTIVES PROGRAM: EQIP 1996
State and local programs
• Provide financial and technical assistance
to agricultural producers through
contracts up to a maximum term of 10
years in length.
• Monies help farmers plan and implement
conservation practices to improve soil,
water, plant, animal, air and related
resources on agricultural land and non-
industrial private forestland.
• Application periods vary by state, but
applications accepted on a continuous
basis using a Conservation Activity Plan
(CAP) that allow targeting to site and
outcome
National initiatives
• EQIP
• Air Quality
• On-Farm Energy
• Organic
• High Tunnel
• Strikeforce
• National Landscape Initiatives
• Conservation Innovation Grants
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/eqip/

18. EQIP: PERENNIAL DISAPPOINTMENT?
Majority of funds on cost share not incentives, contract minimum length shortened from 5 to 1 year in 2002
www.swcs.org/documents/filelibrary/eqipassessment_11fd4bdbb2fbb.pdf

19. EQIP INVESTMENT
http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/trump-budget-proposal-disaster/
Budget proposes $325 M cut to EQIP
http://sustainableagriculture.net/publications/grassrootsguide/
conservation-environment/environmental-quality-incentives-
program/

20. 5. CONSERVATION STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM (CSP)
• Voluntary program where NRCS provides annual land use payments
for operation-level environmental benefits: the higher the operational
performance, the higher their payment.
• 2014 Farm Bill increased the program's focus on generating additional
conservation benefits, removed the limitation on the number of
nonindustrial private forestland acres that can be enrolled in CSP, and
increased flexibility to
enroll land coming out
of the Conservation
Reserve Program

21. CONSERVATION RANKING
• Competitive, applications ranked
• Users establish a baseline and compute score based on enhancements.
• Each land use (cropland, forestland, pastureland, rangeland) are
evaluated separately and compared against stewardship thresholds.
http://sustainableagriculture.net/publications/grassroo
tsguide/conservation-environment/conservation-
stewardship-program/

22. ADDRESS CHRONIC ISSUE
Current % Allocation
RCP AECP CSP EQIP CRP
More Permanent Solution

23. A PERENNIAL PROBLEM OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS?
http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2014/05/2014-farm-bill-
the-big-picture-through-spending.html

24. Coppess, J. 2016 http://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-
articles/looking-ahead-to-the-next-farm-bill/the-next-farm-bill-may-present-opportunities-
for-hybrid-farm-conservation-policies
ACREAGECOVERED

25. CONSERVATION COMPLIANCE
Producers participating in these programs and any person or entity
considered to be an "affiliated person" of the producer must agree, by
certifying on Form AD-1026, that they will not:
• Produce an agricultural commodity on highly erodible land without a
conservation system;
• Plant an agricultural commodity on a converted wetland;
• Convert a wetland to make possible the production of an agricultural
commodity

26. CONSERVATION COMPLIANCE
History
• 1985 – Linked conservation compliance to
crop insurance and farm program benefits
• 1990 – Expanded wetlands coverage,
expanded linkage to conservation
programs, penalties modified to fit
violation
• 1996 – Crop insurance decoupled,
provisions to allow a producer one year to
come into compliance
• 2014 – Conservation compliance again
linked with crop insurance subsidies & all
programs in commodity title
Outcome
• Compliance is main source of protection for
farmed wetlands & highly erodible land (HEL)
• Credited with protecting an estimated 3.3
million wetland acres & 140 million HEL acres
• 93% of producers are in compliance
• Requirements of 1985 Farm Bill largely
unchanged
• Producers who receive farm program benefits
& farm land prone to erosion must develop &
implement a conservation plan
• Producers must file an annual certification of
compliance (AD – 1026)

27. Claassen 2012

28. 6. WHOLE FARM REVENUE PROTECTION
• This insurance plan is tailored for any farm with up to $8.5 million
in insured revenue, including farms with specialty or organic
commodities (both crops and livestock), or those marketing to
local, regional, farm-identity preserved, specialty, or direct
markets.
• Intent to reward the inherent risk management benefits of on-
farm diversification.
• Provides premium discount incentives for increased
diversification up to 7 crops.
• %Coverage increases with number of commodities sold (85%
with 3, 80% with 2)
• Replant coverage
• WFRP requires that a farmer has 5 consecutive years of Schedule
F tax forms
*Yield or price based insurance
http://rafiusa.org/blog/whole-
farm-review-protection-a-year-
in-review/

29. INCOME OR YIELD BASED INSURANCE OPTIONS NOT GREAT FOR WOODY PERENNIALS
Perennial Crops, Pecans and the Federal Crop Insurance
Program, Vilsack, 2008

30. SUBSIDIZED INSURANCE
• Trump budget proposes 36% cut in federally subsidized crop
insurance and would limit the subsidy to a total of $40,000 a
year and deny subsidized crop insurance to people with an
adjusted gross income above $500,000 a year
• Change to cover those who benefit from reduced risk provided
by perennials? Costs of natural disasters incurred at a larger
scale.

31. PERENNIAL AMBITION
1. Long-term contracts
2. Cost-share for plant materials,
establishment
3. Whole-farm, edge of field assessment
for compliance
4. Strategic targeting –edge of field focus
5. No easy money!