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A Farm-Level Analysis of Soil Loss Control: Modeling the Probabilistic Nature of Annual Soil Loss

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

William T. McSweeny*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Penn State
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Abstract

The Conservation Compliance provision of the Food Security Act of 1985 requires all farmers who farmed highly erodible land prior to the passage of the Act to have a locally approved conservation plan fully implemented by 1995 or lose eligibility for numerous farm programs. Soil loss estimates of various crop, tillage practices, and conservation practices, however, are stochastic in nature. A farm planning model is suggested that allows for stochastic soil loss estimates. The model is compared to other models used in farm level soil conservation studies. The model shows promise as a more acceptable tool in that the farm plans are more likely to be acceptable to the farmer.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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Footnotes

The author wishes to express his thanks to two anonymous reviewers whose comments were helpful in shaping this manuscript.

Authorized for publication as paper number 7711 in the journal series of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station.

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