Farm operators are an integral part of some rural economies. The businesses they operate support jobs and purchase goods and services from local implement and input suppliers. Farm household spending on food, furniture and appliances, trucks and automobiles, and a range of consumer goods also supports local jobs and retail businesses. Based on the 2004 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, the linkages between farm household and business expenditures and communities are explored. Farms in urban areas purchase household goods in markets closest to the farmstead, but traveled further to purchase farm business items. The opposite pattern was observed in rural locations.

Among Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) participants, there is a distinction between farm households using the program to ease out of farming and those using the program to augment production receipts. We find evidence that factors other than crop or livestock revenue and environmental factors are associated with program participation and acreage enrollment among farmers who continue agricultural production. Program payments and farm size are positively associated with the amount of land enrolled in the CRP, and characteristics of participants in land retirement and working-lands CRP components are similar.

In recent years, the United States (US) government has put increasing emphasis on conservation programs geared toward rewarding good stewardship on working farmland. And, while the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) farmland retirement programs continue to command the lion's share of the conservation budget, roughly 80 percent of current land retirement contracts are due to expire before the end of the decade. With the 2007 US farm bill debate underway, policy makers will be making decisions about the future direction of farm conservation efforts. This paper examines the business, operator, and household characteristics of farms that have chosen to adopt conservation-compatible practices, with and without financial assistance from conservation programs. It sheds light on the relationship between adoption of conservation-compatible practices and conservation behavior, and how this relationship varies between farm business, operator, and household characteristics. Findings indicate that farm operator and household attributes, and farm business characteristics, affect the likelihood that a farmer adopts certain kinds of conservation-compatible practices. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

CRP is approaching its 20th year of operation. From its inception, concerns have been raised that by retiring millions of acres of cropland, the program could disadvantage farming communities already hard hit by farm sector consolidation and globalization. Clearly the CRP does not benefit everyone, and the conservation benefits enjoyed by society may come at the expense of a few industries and regions. Nonetheless, results of ERS analyses suggest that CRP does not come at the expense of longrun economic growth in nearby communities. Even high levels of CRP enrollment have only a modest impact on total county employment, and this impact is relatively short lived. ERS simulations suggest that, in the longer term, CRP enrollment may increase local nonfarm output and employment, and bolster household income if the program increases farm commodity prices and improves recreational opportunities. No statistically significant evidence was found that high CRP enrollments were associated with systematic population declines at the county level.

In recent years, the Federal Government has increased its emphasis on conservation programs that reward good stewardship on working farmland. This report examines the business, operator, and household characteristics of farms that have adopted certain conservation-compatible practices, with and without financial assistance from government conservation programs. The analysis finds that characteristics of the farm operator and household, in addition to the characteristics of the farm business, are associated with both the likelihood that a farmer will adopt certain conservation-compatible practices and the degree to which the farmer participates in different types of conservation programs. For example, operators of small farm operations and operators not primarily focused on farming are less likely to adopt conservation-compatible farming practices that are management-intensive and to participate in working-land conservation programs than operators of large enterprises whose primary occupation is farming.

This report estimates the impact that high levels of enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) have had on economic trends in rural counties since the program's inception in 1985 until today. The results of a growth model and quasi-experimental control group analysis indicate no discernible impact by the CRP on aggregate county population trends. Aggregate employment growth may have slowed in some high-CRP counties, but only temporarily. High levels of CRP enrollment appear to have affected farm-related businesses over the long run, but growth in the number of other nonfarm businesses moderated CRP's impact on total employment. If CRP contracts had ended in 2001, simulation models suggest that roughly 51 percent of CRP land would have returned to crop production, and that spending on outdoor recreation would decrease by as much as $300 million per year in rural areas. The resulting impacts on employment and income vary widely among regions having similar CRP enrollments, depending upon local economic conditions.

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) offers incentives for producers and landowners to voluntarily retire cropland. The program’s benefits to the environment, CRP participants, and other crop farmers have made it a recurring focus of farm program legislation. While anecdotal evidence suggests that the CRP has negatively affected some rural communities, recent ERS research indicates that, in the aggregate, impacts have been limited.