Aligning Supply Chain Efforts and Removing Barriers to Improving Soil Health.

Conservation farming systems improve soil health through the adoption of practices such as cover crops, nutrient management and reduced tillage and have shown the potential to provide economic benefits to producers, optimize crop production, and improve climate and water quality benefits to the public.  While the adoption of management practices to improve soil health has increased significantly, several of the practices to improve soil health are utilized on a small percentage of acres in the major crop producing areas of the United States. 

Our challenge as researchers, grantors, environmental organizations, commodity organizations, universities and farmers in the next few years is to align organizational efforts, farmer incentives and the removal of barriers to scale up implementation of soil health practices within conservation management systems.  The Walton Family Foundation is investing in three strategies designed to advance adoption of these practices.  The three strategies include removing barriers in crop insurance and other Farm Bill policies to using these practices, aligning incentives for improved soil health through supply chain programs, and building a strong economic case at the farmer scale.

See more from this Division: Special Sessions
See more from this Session: Symposium--Public Private Partnerships to Improve Soil Health and Agronomic Resiliency

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