Implementation Update: How Has the IRA Advanced Conservation on Farms?

Agricultural producers in the United States today are facing the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, droughts, and flooding. But climate-smart agricultural practices, which have significant overlap with conservation practices implemented on farms, can help farmers protect their crops while limiting their own greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate-smart agriculture is not only about mitigating climate change. It can also protect farmers’ livelihoods in an industry where success hinges on the increasingly unpredictable weather. A study by AGree—a coalition of researchers, producers, and nonprofits—shows that when the Midwest faced extreme flooding in 2019, land that had benefited from cover cropping and no-till agriculture was able to absorb more moisture, making planting possible. By contrast, many farmers were unable to plant on land where these techniques had not been used. This study shows how climate-smart practices can provide financial benefits to farmers while helping to protect against the impacts of climate change, making them a smart investment for individual farmers and the federal government.

Through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) (P.L. 117-169), Congress has dedicated $11.7 billion over four years to support sustainable agriculture through the long-standing Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). These conservation programs are also funded through the Farm Bill, which is up for reauthorization.

A recent report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Opening the Door for More Conservation: The Inflation Reduction Act’s Impact on Access to Farm Bill Conservation Programs, describes how producers are interfacing with EQIP and CSP. The report is the latest in a series tracking the progress of these programs and their effectiveness for farmers. This series has highlighted that while the programs are highly valuable for those able to access funding, they have been consistently oversubscribed and unable to support the majority of applicants. Another challenge noted by IATP is that EQIP must provide half of its Farm Bill funding to projects related to livestock. Because of this requirement, certain states are less able to access funding due to a lack of livestock farming operations.

According to the Opening the Door for More Conservation report, IRA funding has helped address some of these issues. For example, IRA funds are detached from the livestock requirement, meaning they can be distributed more evenly across states and will be more likely to support climate-friendly practices, especially on smaller farms that might otherwise receive less federal support. Thanks to the IRA, EQIP was able to award contracts to 2,366 more applicants in fiscal year (FY) 2023 than in FY 2022, and CSP awarded contracts to 3,078 more applicants in the same time period. However, as the report points out, about three quarters of EQIP applicants and more than two thirds of CSP applicants are still unable to obtain funding, indicating that additional support is needed for the programs to meet demand.

Map 1: Percentage of EQIP Applicants Awarded Contracts, FY 2023

Map 2: Percentage of CSP Applicants Awarded Contracts, FY 2023

The maps above, from IATP’s "Opening the Door for More Conservation" report, show the percentage of producers that applied for EQIP and CSP funding, respectively, that received contracts in fiscal year 2023. For more detailed information, see the report, which also includes a table of the number of applications and contracts by state. Credit: IATP.

Other challenges continue to hinder these Farm Bill conservation programs. According to the author of the IATP report series, Michael Happ, one of the biggest challenges is a lack of staff. Insufficient staffing levels at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which operates both EQIP and CSP, make