Structural Conservation Practices in U.S. Corn Production: Evidence on Environmental
Stewardship by Program Participants and Non-Participants
In recent years, in support of its environmental and conservation policy goals, USDA
conservation programs have placed greater emphasis on working-land conservation, primarily
through its EQIP and CSP programs. Working-lands programs assist farmers in implementing and
maintaining such land-management and structural practices as conservation tillage, crop rotations,
cover crops, enhanced nutrient management, precision agriculture, irrigation water management,
crop/livestock diversity, and the use of infield and perimeter-field structures such as strip cropping,
terraces, and stream-side herbaceous buffers. USDA funding for working-land conservation
programs has increased from $174 million in 2000 to roughly $1.3 billion in 2005 (Claassen, 2006;
Aillery, 2006). The environmental effectiveness of USDA conservation programs is currently being
evaluated by USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), through its Conservation
Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). The project’s primary data source is an annual farmer survey
of field-level conservation practices and program participation, integrated with environmental data
at National Resources Inventory (NRI) data points (for the survey years 2003 - 2006). However,
our hypothesis is that the environmental performance of U.S. agriculture is affected by many factors
other than conservation program incentives (Smith and Weinberg, 2004; Lambert et al., 2006).
Good land stewardship and its environmental benefits often make good business sense even without
program participation (Hopkins and Johansson, 2004).
In an effort to better understand the relationships between farmer motivations, program
incentives, and the environmental benefits of conservation programs, USDA also initiated the pilot
national survey integration program, the Conservation Effects Assessment Project — Agricultural
Resources Management Survey (CEAP-ARMS). CEAP-ARMS integrates National Resource
Inventory (NRI) data on field-level physical characteristics and CEAP production practice and
program participation information with USDA ARMS data on cost-of-production, operator, farm