Economic Models Of Agricultural Land Conservation And Environmental Improvement

Questions of soil erosion, soil formation, and technology are extremely complex. Some technologies intensify erosion; others provide conditions for its reduction. Some market measures place a premium on soil and water conservation; others allow their more rapid depletion. There is considerable uncertainty about the rate of soil formation and the extent to which we are turning to production methods that are not sustainable in the long run.
These fears and uncertainties have caused the public to create institutions and undertake investigations capable of telling us the possibilities and consequences of resource depletion and environmental impairment.
To an extent, such evaluations can be made only by extremely detailed models using data that reach out to all the land groups, water bodies, and regions of the nation. This book includes models and analytical methods that have been developed over time for these purposes.
The authors present both mathematical programming and econometric models, with results that apply to such specific resource problems as:
Interregional assessment of soil conservancy programs for agriculture;
Adequacy of land and water resources for U.S. agriculture under environmental improvement programs;
Evaluation for U.S. agriculture of sediment-control programs for the nation's waterways;
Appraisal of the long-term productivity of the U.S. agricultural land base;
Incorporation of demand response in environmental models of U.S. agriculture.
The authors do not concentrate on one approach or favor it over another. Their emphasis is on the use of types of models that are most appropriate for particular purposes. The models and their development are explained, and the results of different policies and alternatives analyzed with them are discussed.
For most of the problems analyzed in the book, the question posed is: "What might be the potentials, possibilities, restraints, and conditions if we try programs in the future that have not been tried in the past?"