WASHINGTON - The 1985 farm
bill has chartered what amounts in
effect to a soil resource bank that
will pay rich dividends to future
generations of Americans,
Chairman Kika de la Garza?
D’Tex., of the House Agriculture
Committee said.
The conservation section of the
1985 law, building on a half century
of conservation efforts by farmers,
ranchers, private resource
protection groups and government
agencies, breaks new ground with
policies designed to help preserve
the nation’s most vulnerable soils.
“What we have is a new national
policy. It recognizes that if our
country is to remain strong in the
21st century, we must preserve the
soil resources on which national
strength is based by making
preservation of fragile lands more
attractive than short-term uses
which allow soils to wash or blow
away. We must encourage land
owners to keep highly erodible
soils out of intensive uses, like crop
production, until they have been
adequately protected,” de la
Garza said.
The new law, the Food Security
Act of 1985, moves toward
protection of fragile land from two
directions;
- For highly erodible land
which has not been cultivated since
1980 or protected by adequate
conservation measures, the law
provides a “sodbuster” program
to discourage plowing up fragile
soils. If a farmer plants a crop on
fragile land in violation of the
terms of the law, he will not be
eligible in the year of the violation.
Highly erodible land that was in
crops (or idled under a govern
ment acreage control program)
between 1981 and 1985 would at
first be exempt from the sodbuster
sanctions, but this exemption
would disappear for any producer
who fails to begin installing an
approved conservation plan on his
land by 1990 or two years after
completion of a government soil
survey on his land, whichever is
later. Producers would have until
1995 to complete application of the
conservation plan. A companion
“swampbuster” provision would,
with some designated exceptions,
deny farm benefits to producers
who convert wetlands to crop use
m the future.
- For highly erodible soils
which are already in crop use, the
law creates a long-term Con
servation Reserve program under
which farmers would contract, in
return for payments, to shift 40 to
15 million acres to less-intensive
uses including grass and trees for
periods of 10 to 15 years.
“The law does not forbid any
landowner to make his or her own
final decision on land use, and it
includes specific new appeal
machinery for any producer who
Sets an adverse ruling under the
new programs. But if anyone
bnngs highly erodible land or
designated types of wetland into
cultivation without protecting it
"nth an approved conservation
system, he or she will not be able to
pt federal farm program
benefits,” de la Garza explained.
“These new steps have been
Sermmating for years. They are
not free from controversy, but they
*ere adopted with a broad a public
and political consensus as we have
saen on any major issue in
nacades. Nobody can be sure of the
total amount of land that will be
affected because, while we have
sat the Conservation Reserve goal
at W to 45 million acres, we cannot
fa sure how much additional land
*■ll be saved from potential future
sadbustmg by the terms of the Act.
But whatever the total, it
a resource which will
na available when fitire
Saturations need it and there
be some near-term gains
“ lr °ugh reduced production of
Sice-depressing surpluses,” de la
Farm Bill sodbuster plank creates soil resource bank
Garza said.
Major provisions of the new
program include;
SODBUSTER PROGRAM: To
discourage plowing up highly
erodible land for use in crops, the
bill would ban any type of price or
income support for crops produced
by a farmer who violates its
provisions. The ban would extend
to, among other things, crop in
surance protection, disaster
payments, Farmers Home Ad
ministration loans that would be
used in a manner contributing to
excessive erosion on fragile land,
and farm storage facility loans.
“Highly erodible” land would be
defined (for both the sodbuster
section and the Conservation
Reserve) as either land rated in
certain designated classes under
the federal land capability
classification system or other land
which would have an excessive
erosion rate if used for crops, and
the law directs the Agriculture
Department to speed up com
pletion of soil survey work.
SWAMPBUSTER PROGRAM:
Under this section, farm program
benefits would be lost by any
person who, in the future, converts
wetlands to use for agricultural
commodities produced by
cultivating the soil. “Converted
wetlands” are lands that meet a
wetland definition contained in the
law and that are in the future
drained, dredged, filled, leveled or
otherwise treated in order to make
them suitable for cultivation. The
“converted wetlands” definition
excludes some specific situations
including artificial lakes or ponds,
wet areas created by delivery of
irrigation water, wetlands on
which agricultural production is
made possible by natural con
ditions, those where the producer’s
action has only minimal impact
(as determined by the Secretary of
Agriculture) on the value of
wetlands, and those handled in
accordance with an approved
wetlands conservation plan.
Wetland conversions begun before
passage of the bill are not affected.
CONSERVATION RESERVE:
To help producers get highly
erodible cropland into less
intensive uses on a long-term
basis, the Secretary of Agriculture
would be required to offer farmers
a chance to sign contracts under
which 40 to 45 million eligible acres
would be given protection and kept
out of crop use for periods of not
less than 10 years or more than 15
years. Producers signing reserve
contracts would have to use con
servation plans approved by a Soil
Conservation District, or a state,
forestry agency if trees are in
volved in the plan. The contracts
would require the conversion of
erodible land previously used for
crops into uses such as pasture,
permanent grass or legumes, or
trees. Also, the Secretary could
make contracts specifically for
converting land to shelterbelts,
windbreaks, or vegetated stream
borders. In return for the lan
downer’s agreement, the
Secretary of Agriculture would
provide two kinds of assistance
technical and cash (or “in kind”)
aid covering half the cost of
establishing approved con
servation practices, and annual
land-rental payments in cash or in
kind. Rental payment rates will be
established on a bid basis and
payments to individual farmers or
ranchers would be limited to
$50,000 a year. No more than 25
BREAKING MILK RECORDS!
Lancaster Farming Carrlai
DHIA Raportt Each Month!
percent of the cropland in any acres during the 1986 crop year and
county could be enrolled in the working up to the final 40-45 million
Reserve unless a higher limit acre total by 1990. He is given
would not hurt the local economy, flexibility to reduce the minimum
The Secretary of Agriculture has enrollment rate for individual
discretionary power to include in years, but this would not affect the
the Reserve lands which pose an need to reach the final goal by 1990.
off-farm environmental threat or In related areas, the new farm
which might suffer continuing law also:
degradation because of salinity. Extends the Soil and Water
Under the law, the Secretary is-' Resources Conservation Act
required to sign reserve contracts through 2008, and requires national
at minimum annual rates begin- resource assessments (and reports
ning with not less than 5 million to Congress) at 10 year intervals
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