Conservation Measures and the Farm Bill

This fact sheet describes the role of the U.S. Farm Bill in promoting voluntary on-farm conservation practices to address agricultural pollution, improve soil health, and sequester carbon. It details specific conservation techniques—such as cover cropping, no-till operations, and intercropping—and outlines the primary funding programs managed by the USDA under the 2014 Farm Bill.

• The 2014 Farm Bill authorized $489 billion in spending by the USDA through 2018, with 6 percent of those outlays dedicated to conservation programs.
• Agriculture is identified as the primary source of water contamination in surveyed rivers and streams, largely due to nutrient runoff of phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizers.
• Cover crops provide environmental benefits by filtering pollutants, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers, and preventing soil erosion, though adoption is hindered by labor requirements and a lack of immediate return on investment.
• No-till and low-till operations reduce soil erosion and sequester greenhouse gases; the United Nations Environment Programme estimates that no-till practices in the United States have prevented 241 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions since the 1970s.
• Intercropping increases biodiversity and ecological services but is rare in the United States because it requires complex management to prevent species from competing for water and nutrients.
• Edge-of-field practices such as subsurface drainage bioreactors and buffer strips help retain nutrients; bioreactors can remove 15 to 60 percent of the annual nitrate load without taking land out of production, while buffer strips can remove 50 percent or more of nutrients and pesticides.
• The 2014 Farm Bill's Conservation Title (Title II) provides $57.6 billion for programs that support over 600,000 jobs, primarily through four major initiatives: EQIP, ACEP, CRP, and CSP.
• The four primary USDA conservation programs differ by objective: EQIP provides payments for specific conservation practices; ACEP uses easements to protect agricultural lands and wetlands; CRP pays farmers to remove environmentally sensitive land from production; and CSP provides financial assistance for stewardship on active production land.

APA

Zayas, G., & Chillrud, R. (2017). Conservation Measures and the Farm Bill. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-measures-and-the-farm-bill

Chicago

Zayas, Gabriela, and Rebecca Chillrud. Conservation Measures and the Farm Bill. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2017. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-measures-and-the-farm-bill.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Zayas |first1=Gabriela |last2=Chillrud |first2=Rebecca |title=Conservation Measures and the Farm Bill |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=3 March 2017 |url=https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-measures-and-the-farm-bill |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{zayas2017conservation, author = {Zayas, Gabriela and Chillrud, Rebecca}, title = {{Conservation Measures and the Farm Bill}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2017}, month = mar, url = {https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-conservation-measures-and-the-farm-bill}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }