BALANCING PRODUCTIVITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INCENTIVE PROGRAM (EQIP)

Abstract

A concern with productivity has to be tempered with our history of declining real prices for agricultural commodities which signal to some degree a certain amount of excess capacity in agriculture in the United States. Thus, environmental concerns today may logically outweigh productivity concerns. Conservation Programs that preceded the present EQIP program, such as the ACP, often had a productivity component that also was designed to help redistribute income to farmers. In terms of productivity, this may have been as direct as subsidizing the application of lime or the installation of drainage. It may have been more indirect, such as improving damaged lands that could then be returned to production. In any case, some portion of conservation programs was seen as productivity enhancing. This was viewed as a worthwhile public expenditure as was the income transfer that went along with it.Environmental Economics and Policy,