A drop of rain hurdles toward a farm and finds itself in a nasty situation — soil mixed with fertilizer and cow poop. After soaking up nutrients, the droplet seeps below the surface into a nearby stream. An excess of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus can cause toxic algae growth where nothing but plant matter can survive.
Farmers use conservation practices to mitigate this process of nutrient runoff. One solution is buffer strips. But not every farmer can afford to go green.
Help through money and data may be on the way.
“We consume nitrogen,” said Ph.D. candidate Miguel Salceda. “It’s kind of a good thing, but too much of a good thing is a bad thing. And then that's the problem that we are trying to address.”
At the MU Horticulture and Agriculture Research Center in New Franklin, Salceda uses the wells on the land to test water samples for nutrient pollution. He’s looking at how effective buffer strips are at filtering out nutrients in water.
Salceda is looking at buffer strips that use trees, or agroforestry strips. A more common type is a filter strip, which is a section of grasses or trees between the edge of a farm and a source of water. The roots grip the soil while also eating up the nutrients in fertilizer runoff. That way, it reduces soil erosion and keeps expensive nutrients on the farms.
“For me, conservation is very important and it's a priority because we all use natural resources,” said Iowa farmer Wendy Johnson. “We need clean water to survive. And we are affecting not only ourselves, but most of it is downstream and it's thousands and thousands of acres all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.”
Johnson co-manages a corn and soybean farm and owns a livestock and organic grain farm in northern Iowa. She uses both grass and agroforestry buffer strips and other conservation practices.
But Johnson says many of her neighbors don’t use buffer strips because they can’t afford to take the land out of production.
“I guess what I’m seeing is every acre matters, every acre counts,” Johnson said.
“For me, conservation is very important and it's a priority because we all use natural resources,” said Iowa farmer Wendy Johnson. “We need clean water to survive. And we are affecting not only ourselves, but most of it is downstream and it's thousands and thousands of acres all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.”
The Missouri US Department of Agriculture office is tucked away in an outdoor shopping mall in Columbia. One agency inside is starting to see some money that might help.
"The big news for us right now is funding,” said Joe Alley, Missouri state forester for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
To offset the cost for farmers, the NRCS under the USDA is helping pay for establishing and maintaining these buffers. Alley said the NRCS can cover between 75% to 90% of the costs. The higher percentage of coverage is for participants considered historically underserved. That includes farmers who have limited resources, are socially disadvantaged, veterans or beginners.
"That's where the Conservation Reserve Program really shines is they will get financial assistance to establish that practice, but also receive an annual payment on it as well,” said Alley.
The Farm Service Agency and NRCS both manage the Conservation Reserve Program.
Farmers can also use a section of the buffer strip to harvest nuts, fruit and other products by the time the contract ends.
But Johnson said the programs aren’t catching up with a farmer’s total income. She also said the payments are not comparable to total incomes from commodities like corn and soybeans. According to farmers and conservation advocacy groups, programs under the USDA need more funding to accept more applicants.
And that money is coming. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August. It dedicated $19.5 billion to NRCS programs that help pay for things like buffer strips and other practices generally identified as climate-smart for the next four years.
“It also gives us the opportunity to kind of look ahead a little bit too and try to address resource concerns that are coming or right here on the horizon,” Alley said. “So yeah, it's exciting times."
In addition, Salceda said many studies on buffer strips are now coming out.
“I think now we can quantify better what the benefits of agroforestry buffers are compared to 20 years ago,” Salceda said. “I think that's something that is shaping this new terrain of conservation practices.”
While those studies are being published, Salceda will be in the lab looking for a solution in the water.
