Center for Conservation Incentives

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Farming for Clean Water

Our new report lists faster, more cost-effective ways to clean up the Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is home to 16 million people and generates $1 trillion per year for the national economy. But this natural treasure is in jeopardy:

  • crab and oyster catches on the Bay are at historic lows and

  • local streams and rivers connected to the Bay are degraded.

One of the Chesapeake’s biggest problems is the mix of nutrients and soil from nearby land that washes into rivers, and then downstream into the Bay.

Farms — which cover most of the Bay landscape and are critical to the region’s economy — contribute significantly to the problem of soil and nutrient runoff. Yet, they are also key to the solution.

Farmers are already doing a lot to help the Bay, but there are a number of ways to help them deliver even greater benefits.

Our recommendations to improve water quality

Our new report, Farming for Clean Water [PDF], offers solutions for restoring the Bay by substantially changing the ways we fund, deliver, credit and verify agricultural conservation. Our suggested improvements would:

  • target funds and attention to conservation practices that have proven most cost-effective in reducing farm runoff;

  • make traditional conservation practices — such as nutrient management, conservation tillage and cover crops — more effective by shifting emphasis to performance and outcomes;

  • embrace innovation in farm management systems and practices — such as dairy feed management and alternative cropping systems — that will help both the Bay and farmers’ bottom lines;

  • increase research and education to promote widespread adoption of today’s innovations and to develop tomorrow's;

  • increase resources for technical assistance and financial rewards for farmers who produce clean water and other environmental benefits;

  • improve the ability to track conservation funding and verify which practices are actually implemented; and

  • determine the nutrient and sediment load reductions the practices generate.

Posted: 01-Jan-1900; Updated: 01-Jan-1900