Increase Adoption of Conservation Practices

Farmers and ranchers across the U.S. are experiencing unpredictable and extreme weather, including droughts, floods, heatwaves, and shifting seasons, costing them time and money. Helping farmers adapt and build resilience to this “new normal” is critical, and conservation practices, such as those that improve soil health, play an important role.  

Soil health practices are a win-win: Farmers benefit from resilience to drought and flooding, improved yields, and reduced revenue losses. Communities benefit through improved food security and water quality, as well as climate change mitigation, as healthy soils sequester more carbon. Healthy soils can even reduce crop insurance program costs! 

Unfortunately, national adoption of soil health practices is minimal, and farmers must overcome significant cost, knowledge, and support barriers to reap these benefits. In a recent white paper, AFT detailed stories from farmers and ranchers about how they are being impacted by extreme weather and discussed the opportunities at the state and federal levels to support them. The Farm Bill presents an opportunity to provide more effective and equitable support to all producers to help them meet their conservation and economic goals while feeding their communities in the face of a changing climate. AFT recommends that Congress: 

Improve on and Build Greater Equity into NRCS Conservation Programs

Authorized by the Farm Bill, USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service administers programs that provide farmers with the technical and financial support they need to build soil health, improve water quality, combat climate change, and build resilience. But these programs are oversubscribed and are often challenging to access and use - especially for farmers and ranchers with small-scale operations. The following white paper and Farm Bill priorities detail opportunities for Congress to ensure sustainable program funding, streamline implementation, increase opportunities for farmers to learn from one another, and to improve NRCS conservation program access for all farmers regardless of scale, location, or production system.

Create a Federal Match for State and Tribal Soil Health Programs

USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) programs are the main form of support for adoption of soil health practices. However, these popular programs are highly oversubscribed, address a wide range of resource concerns beyond soil health, and do not meet the needs of all producers. Recognizing the urgent need to support soil health, many states in recent years have created their own programs to support producers in improving soil health by building on and filling in NRCS program gaps. There is now an important opportunity to expand and supplement this important work to increase soil health practice adoption across the country.

Integrate Conservation and Crop Insurance

Federal crop insurance covers the vast majority of commodity acres, and helps farms to stay viable through challenging years. By better integrating risk-reducing conservation actions such as cover crops, the program could help to maintain a more stable food supply and reduce program expenses.