IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/hebarc/9373.html

Impact of High Crop Prices on Environmental Quality: A Case of Iowa and the Conservation Reserve Program

Author

Listed:
  • Secchi, Silvia
  • Babcock, Bruce A.

Abstract

Growing demand for corn due to the expansion of ethanol has increased concerns that environmentally sensitive lands retired from agricultural production into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) will be cropped again. Iowa produces more ethanol than any other state in the United States, and it also produces the most corn. Thus, an examination of the impacts of higher crop prices on CRP land in Iowa can give insight into what we might expect nationally in the years ahead if crop prices remain high. We construct CRP land supply curves for various corn prices and then estimate the environmental impacts of cropping CRP land through the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model. EPIC provides edge-of-field estimates of soil erosion, nutrient loss, and carbon sequestration. We find that incremental impacts increase dramatically as higher corn prices bring into production more and more environmentally fragile land. Maintaining current levels of environmental quality will require substantially higher spending levels. Even allowing for the cost savings that would accrue as CRP land leaves the program, a change in targeting strategies will likely be required to ensure that the most sensitive land does not leave the program.

Suggested Citation

  • Secchi, Silvia & Babcock, Bruce A., 2007. "Impact of High Crop Prices on Environmental Quality: A Case of Iowa and the Conservation Reserve Program," Hebrew University of Jerusalem Archive 9373, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:hebarc:9373
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.9373
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/9373/files/wp070447.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.9373?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. GR Pautsch & LA Kurkalova & BA Babcock & CL Kling, 2001. "The Efficiency Of Sequestering Carbon In Agricultural Soils," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 19(2), pages 123-134, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jacinto F. Fabiosa & John C. Beghin & Fengxia Dong & JAmani Elobeid & Simla Tokgoz & Tun-Hsiang Yu, 2010. "Land Allocation Effects of the Global Ethanol Surge: Predictions from the International FAPRI Model," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 86(4), pages 687-706.
    2. Guo, Huanhuan & Li, Bo & Hou, Ying & Lu, Shubing & Nan, Bo, 2014. "Rural households' willingness to participate in the Grain for Green program again: A case study of Zhungeer, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 42-49.
    3. Katona-Kovacs, Judit, 2008. "Analysis of agri-environmental measures in Hungary – a regional perspective," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 107, pages 1-18, March.
    4. LI, Liqing & Ando, Amy W. & Kirwan, Barrett E., "undated". "The Impact of Conservation Programs on Local Employment: A Case of Conservation Reserve Program," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259195, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Sung, Jae-hoon & Miranowski, John A., 2016. "Information technologies and field-level chemical use for corn production," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235858, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. repec:bla:canjag:v:58:y:2010:i:s1:p:463-480 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Beghin, John C. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani E. & Tokgoz, Simla & Yu, Tun-Hsiang (Edward), 2009. "Land Allocation Effects of the Global Ethanol Surge: Predictions from the International FAPRI Model," Hebrew University of Jerusalem Archive 48598, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
    8. Chang, Hung-Hao & Chen, Yu-Hui, 2011. "Are participators in the land retirement program likely to grow energy crops?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(9), pages 3183-3188.
    9. Moon, Jin-Young & Apland, Jeffrey & Folle, Solomon & Mulla, David, 2016. "A Watershed Level Economic Analysis of Cellulosic Biofuel Feedstock Production with Consideration of Water Quality," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 5(3).
    10. Eugene Adjei & Jingfang Zhang & Wendiam Sawadgo & Wenying Li, 2024. "Nonlinear effects of conservation reserve program rental rates on land enrollment under varying crop price regimes," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 1038-1064, September.
    11. repec:isu:genstf:201001010800002848 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Christian Langpap & JunJie Wu, 2011. "Potential Environmental Impacts of Increased Reliance on Corn-Based Bioenergy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(2), pages 147-171, June.
    13. Douglas G. Tiffany, 2009. "Economic and environmental impacts of U.S. corn ethanol production and use," Regional Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Apr, pages 42-58.
    14. Ofir D. Rubin & Miguel Carriquiry & Dermot J. Hayes, 2008. "Implied Objectives of U.S. Biofuel Subsidies," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 08-wp459, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    15. Petrolia, Daniel R. & Ibendahl, Gregory A., 2008. "Conservation Programs: Will Grain Production Reclaim Acres in the South?," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(2), pages 559-572, August.
    16. Bhattacharya, Suparna & Azzam, Azzeddine M. & Mark, Darrell R., 2009. "Ethanol and Meat in the U.S.: A Multi-Market Analysis," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49371, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Wade, Tara & Kurkalova, Lyubov A. & Secchi, Silvia, 2012. "Using the logit model with aggregated choice data in estimation of Iowa corn farmers’ conservation tillage subsidies," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124974, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Delshad, Ashlie B. & Raymond, Leigh & Sawicki, Vanessa & Wegener, Duane T., 2010. "Public attitudes toward political and technological options for biofuels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3414-3425, July.
    19. Carmen Bain & Theresa Selfa, 2013. "Framing and reframing the environmental risks and economic benefits of ethanol production in Iowa," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 351-364, September.
    20. Abbasi, Tasneem & Abbasi, S.A., 2010. "Biomass energy and the environmental impacts associated with its production and utilization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 919-937, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khyati Malik, 2026. "Farmer Adoption and Payment Design Under Risk: Variability in Soil Carbon Sequestration Across Conservation Practices," NBER Chapters, in: Risk and Risk Management in the Agricultural Economy, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Tas Thamo & David J. Pannell & Marit E. Kragt & Michael J. Robertson & Maksym Polyakov, 2017. "Dynamics and the economics of carbon sequestration: common oversights and their implications," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 1095-1111, October.
    3. Wade, Tara & Kurkalova, Lyubov & Secchi, Silvia, 2016. "Modeling Field-Level Conservation Tillage Adoption with Aggregate Choice Data," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 41(2), May.
    4. Manning, Dale & Rad, Mani Rouhi & Ogle, Stephen, 2022. "Inferring the Supply of GHG Abatement from Agricultural Lands," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322539, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Jimena González-Ramírez & Catherine L. Kling & Adriana Valcu, 2012. "An Overview of Carbon Offsets from Agriculture," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 145-160, August.
    6. Lyubov A. Kurkalova & Catherine L. Kling & Jinhua Zhao, 2003. "Multiple Benefits of Carbon-Friendly Agricultural Practices: Empirical Assessment of Conservation Tillage," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 03-wp326, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    7. Hediger, Werner, "undated". "The non-permanence of optimal soil carbon sequestration," 83rd Annual Conference, March 30 - April 1, 2009, Dublin, Ireland 51057, Agricultural Economics Society.
    8. Sharma, Bijay P. & Khanna, Madhu & Miao, Ruiqing, 2022. "Designing Efficient Payments to Incentivize GHG Mitigation Using Energy Crops," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322361, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Hartmann, M. & Hediger, W. & Peter, S. & Lehmann, B., . "Der Wert landwirtschaftlicher Leistungen im Klimaschutz – Eine ökonomische Analyse für die Schweiz – The value of agricultural contribution to climate policy - an economic analysis for Switzerland," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 41.
    10. John M. Antle & Roberto O. Valdivia, 2006. "Modelling the supply of ecosystem services from agriculture: a minimum‐data approach," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 50(1), pages 1-15, March.
    11. Feng, Hongli & Kurkalova, Lyubov A. & Kling, Catherine L. & Gassman, Philip W., 2006. "Environmental conservation in agriculture: Land retirement vs. changing practices on working land," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 600-614, September.
    12. Garnache, Cloe & Merel, Pierre R. & Lee, Juhwan & Six, Johan, "undated". "Markets for Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Offsets: The Role of Policy Design on Abatement Efficiency," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170718, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Schneider, Uwe A. & McCarl, Bruce A. & Schmid, Erwin, 2007. "Agricultural sector analysis on greenhouse gas mitigation in US agriculture and forestry," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 128-140, May.
    14. Schneider, Uwe A. & McCarl, Bruce A., 2002. "The Potential Of U.S. Agriculture And Forestry To Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions: An Agricultural Sector Analysis," Hebrew University of Jerusalem Archive 18409, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
    15. van Kooten, G. Cornelis & Eagle, Alison J. & Manley, James G. & Smolak, Tara M., 2004. "How Costly Are Carbon Offsets? A Meta-Analysis Of Carbon Forest Sinks," Working Papers 18166, University of Victoria, Resource Economics and Policy.
    16. Wade, Tara & Claassen, Roger, 2015. "Modeling No-Tillage Adoption by Corn and Soybean Producers: Insights into Sustained Adoption," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 204957, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Kurkalova, Lyubov A. & Kling, Catherine L. & Zhao, Jinhua, 2003. "Multiple Benefits of Carbon-Friendly Agricultural Practices: Empirical Assessment of Conservation Tillage in Iowa," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10194, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    18. James Manley & G. Cornelis van Kooten & Klaus Moeltner & Dale Johnson, 2003. "Creating Carbon Offsets in Agriculture through No-Till Cultivation: A Meta-Analysis of Costs and Carbon Benefits," Working Papers 2003-05, University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group.
    19. Garnache, Cloe & Merel, Pierre R., 2012. "Carbon market policy design: Investigating the role of payments aggregation," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124960, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Uwe A. Schneider & Michael Obersteiner & Erwin Schmid & Bruce A. McCarl, 2007. "Agricultural adaptation to climate policies under technical change," Working Papers FNU-133, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Jan 2008.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:hebarc:9373. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.