Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9403180041
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-19 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SANDRA S. BATIE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Protecting soil from erosion has been at the heart of this nation's conservation policies for over half a century. The dust-bowl years of the 1930s, with their "black blizzard" sandstorms, dramatized the dangers of erosion. The federal government also used that crisis to link soil-conservation programs with income-support programs, thereby helping farmers through the Great Depression.
The government's emphasis on soil erosion has persisted ever since, yet we now know that many things besides erosion threaten soils. The increasing salt content in soil, especially in the western United States, is degrading farmland. Heavy farm equipment can compress soil so severely that crops are stunted. Loss of organic matter reduces the capacity of soil to hold water and nutrients.
Nor is soil degradation the only environmental problem caused by agriculture. Fertilizers, pesticides, and salts have polluted some surface waters and groundwaters. Algae blooms caused by fertilizer runoff have severely damaged some aquatic ecosystems. Sediments have clogged rivers and dams.
The increasing prominence of these environmental problems has put agriculture in a dilemma. Society needs and wants the food and fiber that agriculture produces. Yet some current agricultural practices are having serious environmental consequences.
To reconcile agricultural productivity with protection of the environment, this country needs a new set of environmental-conservation policies. I believe that four major objectives described in a recent report from the National Research Council can serve as the foundation for these policies:
We need to recognize that soil resources are just as important to the environment as are water and air. Protecting the quality of soil resources is, in fact, the first step toward protecting water quality. This goal means protecting soils not only against erosion but against compaction, salinization and other threats to their productivity.
Farmers need to increase the efficiency with which they use fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water. In most cases, farmers cannot sustain yields without using these inputs. But many technologies and management methods are available today that can reduce the use of agrichemicals and irrigation water while maintaining yields and improving profits.
Similarly, many different conservation systems can reduce erosion and runoff and enhance soil quality. Today about 30 percent of our croplands employ such systems. These technologies should be used much more widely.
Buffer zones ranging from grass strips in fields to natural vegetation bordering water courses can protect soils and water. Though buffer strips cannot substitute for improvements in farming systems, they can augment those efforts.
All of the techniques and approaches needed to protect our soils and water are used today by farmers somewhere in the United States. But major obstacles keep most farmers from taking advantage of these techniques. Most importantly, conservation programs have typically distributed technical and financial assistance as widely as possible, partly because of their links to income-support programs. But to reach environmental goals, the nation needs to target its efforts at those regions where soil degradation and water pollution are most severe.
Just as there are problem areas, so there are problem farms. National policy needs to target the farms that cause the most problems while rewarding, or at least not interfering with, those farms and farmers that protect the soil and water.
In the next few years, several key laws need to be reauthorized, giving the nation an opportunity to thoroughly revamp its agricultural and conservation policies.
The four objectives I've described - protecting soil quality, improving the efficiency of use of agricultural inputs, reducing erosion and runoff, and using buffer strips -can provide an overarching framework for this process. Successfully implemented, these objectives will help protect soil and water, two of our most precious resources.
Sandra S. Batie, Elton R. Smith Professor in Food and Agricultural Policy at Michigan State University, recently chaired a National Research Council committee on conservation policy.
by CNB