By Michelle Perez
The following analysis was produced by AFT’s Water Initiative Director Michelle Perez, Research Scientist Jennifer Tillman, and Conservation and Climate Policy Manager Samantha Levy. Additional research and analysis were provided by Robert Parkhurst and Rebecca Wright of Sierra View Solutions.
Helping more farmers and ranchers voluntarily adopt conservation practices is one of the most efficient ways to spend public dollars to support farm profitability while also achieving environmental outcomes. While the 2022 USDA Census brought some welcome news related to conservation practice adoption, such as a 17% increase in adoption of cover crops from 2017, conservation practices are still underutilized on farms. For example, cover crops are only planted on 7% of eligible cropland acres. And while no-till and reduced till acres have experienced major gains in the past, there was no change in the number of combined acres in these practices since the 2017 census. Why is that?
Despite proven economic and environmental benefits, producers face numerous barriers in adopting these practices, including risk, cost, and lack of information and implementation support. Farm Bill conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) – coupled with technical assistance from Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) field specialists, non-profits (NGOs), technical service providers, and peers – help producers overcome these barriers so they, and society, can reap the benefits of these practices while minimizing operational risk.
In addition, state-level conservation programs, and the former Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) program, now being re-launched as the “Advancing Markets for Producers” (AMP) initiative, are providing essential supplemental support. To help shed light on the importance of these investments while this redesign of AMP takes place, AFT analyzed public data on the former PCSC program. We are now providing a series of articles to discuss the many benefits that conservation practices provide to producers and why it makes sense to continue to support them in the new AMP initiative as well as through activities on the Hill.
The PCSC program was terminated on April 14, 2025. The press release announcing the end of the program can be found here. Projects that were terminated have been invited to apply to the AMP program by Jun 20, 2025.
Long before the practices selected by the 135 PCSC projects were known as “climate-smart,” these were known as practices that prevent soil erosion, protect water quality, make plants and animals more resilient, provide wildlife habitat, promote energy efficiency, and more.
Many of these practices were initiated as far back as 1935 when the nation was battling the “Dust Bowl” (see photo above), and the USDA first formed the Soil Conservation Service (later renamed the Natural Resource Conservation Service [NRCS] we know today). Over the past 90 years, NRCS has continued to add and refine these conservation practices, with some of the latest practices being added as recently as 2022.
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