The working lands programs in the United States are specifically tailored to support farmers in initiating or enhancing conservation practices. The expectation is that farmers receiving financial assistance will continue implementing these practices even after their initial contracts end, thereby increasing the programs’ cost‐effectiveness and promoting natural resources conservation. However, little is known about the likelihood of persistence and disadoption of conservation practices once the initial cost‐share contracts expire. Using the first‐order Markov chain framework on state‐level conservation practices acreage data from the Mississippi Delta region (2005–2022), this study provides quantitative estimates of changing (dis)adoption patterns of four conservation practices: cover crops (CCs), conservation tillage (CT), nutrient and irrigation management (NIM), and conservation crop rotation (CCR). The findings reveal a higher probability of persistence of NIM practices. In contrast, acres devoted to CCs and CT tend to transition into other alternative practices, indicating a greater likelihood of disadoption. Importantly, the likelihood of acres that initially adopt conservation practices with funding shifting to a condition of no conservation activity is minimal. The transition probability estimates facilitate the prediction of future adoption rates of conservation practices and aid funding agencies in prioritizing their conservation efforts.

The agriculture of the Texas High Plains (THP) region is primarily dependent on groundwater irrigation. Changing weather patterns along with competing demands for water resources and other anthropogenic effects have dramatically increased withdrawals from the Ogallala aquifer. In addition to on-farm changes, policy tools based on off-farm mechanisms are equally indispensable in addressing sustainable groundwater use in the THP. One such policy tool is water pricing using estimates of price elasticity of irrigation water demand. This paper estimates the elasticity of irrigation water demand in the THP and assesses the influence of water price on major inputs used in dominant irrigated crops such as corn and cotton. Using the translog profit function on an annual county-level dataset of THP crop production, spanning 23 years (1998–2020), we find that irrigation water demand is price elastic for cotton (η = – 1.58) but inelastic for corn (η = – 0.81). Our findings suggest that a non-uniform pricing policy could be a useful tool to promote the efficient use of groundwater for irrigation.

Section 404 of the U.S. Clean Water Act includes most wetlands in its jurisdiction and requires wetland mitigation to compensate for permitted wetland losses. These mitigation wetlands can provide ecosystem services similar to original wetlands if properly constructed. Improvement of wetland monitoring requirements coupled with economic assessment is critical for effective implementation of the mitigation policy. The economic assessment when left out of evaluation of mitigation policy could result in mitigation wetlands being given too little weight in policy decisions. Under the assumption that mitigation requirements reported in the Army Corps permit files represent actual wetland creation, ecosystem services value is estimated using a wetland benefit‑function transfer approach. Wetland mitigation requirements during 2010–2012 recorded in the Army Corps permit files is used for the analysis. The results indicate that cumulative ecosystem services value per acre per year is in the range of $5000 to $70,000, which translates to a nationwide annual aggregate benefit of $2.7 billion. Given the history of the ecosystem services not fully captured nor adequately quantified, the current analysis is an initial step in understanding the value of wetland mitigation.

This study investigates owner and tenant characteristics and differences between these two groups in their participation in federal conservation initiatives. Bivariate probit model analysis, based on a 2016–2017 Louisiana row-crop producer’s survey show that owners, relative to tenant farmers, are more likely to adopt conservation in early years of ownership. The results emphasize the need for mechanisms for tenants in short-term contracts to invest in long-term conservation. Moreover, conservation initiatives should be tailored, as tenant farmers are increasingly farming more land and policies should carefully account for this growing group of farmers.

To fulfill the national bioenergy goals of the United States, conversion of marginal lands to intensive biomass crop production and/or application of greater amounts of nutrients to existing cropland could be expected. Such change in agricultural practices could produce unintended environmental consequences such as water quality degradation. Select Best Management Practices (BMPs) are evaluated for water quality mitigation effectiveness as well as for their relative cost-effectiveness, issues that are often ignored in evaluation of biofuels as a sustainable solution for energy demand. The water quality impacts of converting pastureland to intensive biomass production for biofuel, evaluated using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), indicate significant increases in erosion and nutrient loadings to water bodies. Hydrologic and economic evaluation of the BMPs indicate their implementation produced effective water pollution mitigation but at substantial costs, accentuating the sustainability issue related to the economics of renewable fuels. U.S. national energy policy designed around achieving energy independence should also consider environmental and economic trade-offs for biofuels to be an economically and environmentally sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.