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The Environmental Defense Fund and National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (collectively, “NASDA”) released a joint report titled:
Innovative State-Led Efforts to Finance Agricultural Conservation (“Report”)
The authors of the Report include:
- John Feldmann
- Vincent Gauthier
- Maggie Monast
- Mark Rupp
- Britt Aamundsen
The Report describes state-level programs using what are described as “non-traditional financing mechanisms.”
Examples include crop insurance discounts and transferrable tax credits. Their objective is to incentivize conservation adoption.
The Report notes by way of introduction that United States farmers are dealing with the most difficult agricultural economy since the 1980s. Concurrently, the states are noted to be facing the need to address environmental challenges. As a result, the Report puts forth the premise that agricultural conservation practices can provide “multiple environmental and economic benefits for farmers and society.” It further notes that:
. . . any farm management transition involves a certain amount of cost and risk, and some conservation practices offer purely public benefits. For these reasons, public programs that support
farmers in adopting agricultural conservation practices are a critical element in advancing conservation broadly. To fund these programs and practices, a number of states are turning to innovative approaches to finance agricultural conservation.
The Report contains Chapters which address:
- The importance of agricultural conservation practices
- States’ role in supporting agricultural conservation adoption
- The role of financial assistance in expanding conservation adoption
- Funding sources
- State revolving fund
- Environmental double dividend fee structure
- Financing tools
- Transferable tax credits
- Best management practice water allocation flexibility
- Cover crop-crop insurance incentives
A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.
