A Sector Analysis of Alternative Income Support and Soil Conservation Policies

For nearly five decades Congress has attempted to legislate both higher farm incomes and soil conservation. A national, interregional, demand‐endogenous, separable programming model is used to analyze the potential of alternative policies to achieve simultaneously the dual goals of increased farm income and reduced soil erosion. The analysis indicates that a conservation‐oriented land retirement policy can be designed to achieve an increase in net farm income equivalent to a traditional general land retirement policy, while simultaneously achieving significant reductions in gross soil erosion, chemical input use, and direct government program costs.