Soil and Water Quality An Agenda for Agriculture (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Soil Quaky Protecting soil quality, like protecting air and water quality, should be a fundamental goal of national environmental policy. The quality of a soil depends on attributes such as the soil's texture, 1
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Producing that food and fiber inescapably alters the environment, and some effect on soil and water quality is inevitable. Unfortunately, comprehensive national data on soil degradation and water pollution caused by farming practices are often lacking.
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conserving soil productivity.-Erosion is not the only, and in some cases not the most important, threat to soil quality. Salinization and compaction are important and often irreversible processes of soil degradation.
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Preventing water pollution by nutrients, pesticides, salts, sediments, or other pollutants will be difficult and more expensive if soil degradation is not controlled. Protecting soil quality alone, however, will not prevent water pollution unless other elements of the farming system are addressed (see Chapter 5~.
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The major opportunity to improve the effectiveness of these systems is to increase their use on lands that are most vulnerable to soil quality degradation or that most contribute to water pollution. In some regions the applicability of these systems may be limited, however, because of unfavorable physical or economic factors.
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It is also important to target those farm enterprises that cause a disproportionate amount of soil and water quality problems. The inability or unwillingness to target policies, whether voluntary or nonvoluntary, at problem areas and problem farms is a major obstacle to preventing soil degradation and water pollution.
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Problem Farms Soil and water quality programs should be targeted at problem farms that, because of their location, production practices, or management, have greater potential to cause soil degradation or water pollution. Although systematic data on production practices, input use, and management systems are scarce, available data indicate that some farm enterprises cause more soil and water problems than others.
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Progress has been made in developing technologies to match farming practices to variations in soil quality, to monitor and assess the nutrient and water status of crop plants, and to monitor and determine economic levels of pest problems. It is important to accelerate the development of the diagnostic and monitoring tools producers need to refine their management of soil, nutrients, pest control, and irrigation water.
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New Cropping Systems Research and. development of economically viable cropping systems that incorporate cover crops, multiple crops, and other innovations should be accelerated to meet long-term soil and water quality goals.
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Clear standards will increase the confidence that soil and water quality will be improved and provide a basis for determining whether plans are being adequately implemented. In the long term, however, the inability to provide more quantitative predictions of the effect of changes in farming systems on soil and water quality will be a serious constraint to efforts to meet soil and water quality goals.
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Barriers Imposed by Price and Supply Control Federal agricultural price support and supply control programs should be reformed to increase the flexibility participants have to diversify their cropping systems. The incentives created to grow only program crops and protect base acreage are barriers to the adoption of more diverse cropping systems to prevent soil degradation and water pollution.
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These programs, however, are not the cause of those problems-soil degradation and water pollution problems would remain even if these programs were eliminated. Incremental changes in conventional agricultural policies will most likely not result in major changes in farming practices and will likely result in only modest gains in soil and water quality.
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In many cases, these private sources of information have become more important direct sources of advice and recommendations than public sources. Soil and water quality programs need to take advantage of the capacity of the private and nonprofit sectors to deliver information and education to producers.
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Some croplands, because of their soils, landscape position, or hydrogeological setting, cannot be profitably farmed without causing soil degradation or water pollution. Other lands, if managed as buffer zones or wetlands rather than as croplands, could help improve soil and water quality.
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The ideal has been promoted through education, financial incentives, ethical imperatives, or legal mandates, and many landowners and land users manage their lands in ways that prevent soil degradation and water pollution. The lack of clarity and consistency in the legal definition of the responsibilities as well as rights of landowners and land users has impeded long-term comprehensive efforts in which publicly funded soil and water quality gains are made permanent.
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