It’s well-known that agricultural practices can affect soil fertility, water quality, wildlife populations and pest numbers for good or bad. Two newly published items discuss the intersection of beneficial outcomes and financial incentives.
The journal BioSciences describes research by the Kellogg Biological Station in Michigan on cropping methods that use one-third less fertilizer, grow cover crops during fallow seasons, or employ “no till” practices. A summary says “the authors found that although sustained profitability is generally farmers’ overriding concern, substantial proportions would accept payments to adopt such practices, especially those with large farms.”
In California’s Central Valley, a project called BirdReturns pays rice farmers to flood their fields to create “pop up” wetlands during the migratory season for shorebirds such as dunlins, sandpiper, snipes, whimbrels and marbled godwits, says the New York Times. The first season of the project funded by the Nature Conservancy ended last month. Some 10,000 acres were entered in the program.