Posted December 11, 2013
USDA recently released a report finding that farm bill conservation practices are reducing runoff of nutrients and sediment in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, according to a USDA news release available here. The full report is available here.
The report, part of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) “estimates that since 2006, conservation practices applied by farmers and landowners are reducing nitrogen leaving fields by 48.6 million pounds each year, or 26 percent, and reducing phosphorus by 7.1 million pounds, or 46 percent.”
The report also says that conservation practices have lowered the estimated average eroded soil “by about 15.1 million tons a year, or 60 percent – enough soil to fill 150,000 rail cars stretching more than 1,700 miles.” In addition, some form of erosion control has been adopted on 97 percent of cropland acres in the area. Land with cover crops also increased from 12 percent to 52 percent in that time period. The “majority of these conservation practices in the Chesapeake Bay were made possible through Farm Bill conservation programs, which are now expired.”
Conservation groups like the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), say the report shows voluntary use of good conservation practices “is paying off in a big way,” according to an article by Farm Futures available here.
“The report highlights the importance of conservation planning,” said NACD President Earl Garber. “No single practice applies for every producer on cultivated cropland; the use of a comprehensive conservation plan has been critical to these water quality successes.”
For more information on conservation programs, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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