Economic dimensions of soil health practices that sequester carbon: promising research directions

Authors: REJESUS, RODERICK - North Carolina State University; AGLASAN, SERKAN - North Carolina State University; KNIGHT, LYNN - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA); Cavigelli, Michel; Dell, Curtis; HOLLINGER, DAVID - Us Forest Service (FS); LANE, ERIN - Us Forest Service (FS)

Submitted to: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/3/2021
Publication Date: 5/7/2021
Citation: Rejesus, R.M., Aglasan, S., Knight, L.G., Cavigelli, M.A., Dell, C.J., Hollinger, D., Lane, E.D. 2021. Economic dimensions of soil health practices that sequester carbon: promising research directions. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 76(3):55A-60A. https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.2021.0324A.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.2021.0324A

Interpretive Summary: There is significant interest in promoting agricultural practices that help maintain or improve soil health, since soil health enhances agricultural and environmental performance while helping address climate change. Farmer adoption of soil health practices is strongly driven by private economic benefits weighed against associated private costs. Since there are also environmental benefits from adopting soil health practices, public policy plays a role in aligning private incentives with public environmental goals. Researchers associated with the USDA Northeast Climate Hub here describe the economic dimensions associated with the decision to adopt soil health practices and identify future research directions to help implement more soil health building practices. Future research directions include: 1) long-term economic studies that estimate relationships among soil health practices, soil health indicators, and economic outcomes, including addressing whether soil health practices reduce variability in yields and revenues over time, 2) use of aggregate data sets, such as county-level satellite-based data, that allow study of a variety of economics issues over long periods of time and covering a wider geographical scale, 3) analyzing conservation payment programs to determine how effective they are in encouraging adoption of soil health conservation practices, including comparing different federal and state level programs, and 4) using non-market valuation techniques to estimate the societal external contributions of soil health practices to more accurately determine the total net benefits of soil health conservation practices. The paper will be of interest to conservation practitioners, policy makers and scientists involved in climate change, agricultural production and environmental quality issues.

Technical Abstract: Soil health enhances agricultural and environmental performance while helping address climate change. Thus, there is significant interest in promoting agricultural practices that help maintain or improve soil health, such as cover cropping, no-till residue and tillage management, conservation crop rotations, and nutrient management. Adoption of soil health practices by farmers is inextricably linked to whether private economic benefits from implementing these practices outweigh the associated private costs. In addition, the environmental benefits from adopting soil health practices are important in shaping public policy to align private incentives with public environmental goals. Here, we describe the economic dimensions associated with the decision to adopt soil health practices and identify future research directions to help implement more soil health building practices. These include: 1) long-term economic studies using longitudinal data sets to estimate the causal relationships among soil health practices, soil health indicators, and economic outcomes, including addressing whether soil health practices reduce variability in yields and revenues over time, 2) use of aggregate data sets, such as county-level satellite-based data, that allow study of a variety of economics issues over long periods of time and covering a wider geographical scale, 3) analyzing conservation payment programs to determine how effective they are in encouraging adoption of soil health conservation practices, including comparing different federal and state level programs, and 4) using non-market valuation techniques to estimate the societal external contributions of soil health practices to more accurately ascertain the total net benefits of soil health conservation practices.